Sword Art Online, Through Angel
by AnimaniacComin'AtYa
Summary: Angel, a girl cursed with a photographic memory, and the inability to hear in real life. Gets stuck in a death game, the name? Sword Art Online! What will happen to the 15 year old girl as she searches for love, friendship, happiness, and the ability to hear in the death game that may very well be the end of her!
1. Meet me! Angel!

=Chapter 1-The Prologue=

Hello, my friends, I am Angel. My hair is white, and I have silver eyes, which makes me look like a real oddball, sometimes I just wish I could look normal, but I have tried dying my hair and completely failed resulting in my hair getting cut, so I gave up and just ended up growing my hair really long because I thought it suited me just a little better so I could look maybe just a little more normal. The whole reason I was named Angel is because of my hair and eyes, my dad said I also had an angelic look even as a baby, even though he can't say it anymore, my name always will remind me of him, because of what he had told me. As of today I am 14 years old, however, I will turn 15 tomorrow and my highest hope is that I can get the new Sword Art Online video game!

It's so exciting, think about it, the first VRMMOPG game, sorry if I said it wrong. Anyways, I am more excited than most because I am deaf, and some people speculate it will allow those who are deaf and or blind to get to experience sight and sound! Now that I think about it though, I don't think that you could stimulate the eyes in someone who has never seen before, but with a machine as miraculous as this, who knows. There is always a flip side to things though, I still won't be able to understand anything that people may say or have the ability to speak myself, maybe someone will teach me in game! Despite that fact, I am happy with my life. I have to say that this new equipment that Kayaba invented could not only be a huge breakthrough in the field of technology but also in the field of treating those with disabilities such as my own.

I have been on three TV shows, all saying basically the same thing, that my brain has a photographic memory, which I noticed it does. However, some people think that photographic memory means being able to skim through the pages a book in order to have efficiently **read** it. I do not have that kind of ability, I can remember the pages but all the pages would be a blur so I couldn't read anything from the memories I had of the moving pages. I do have a very high IQ as well, but people say that that is not accurate and I shouldn't get to happy about it. Which I guess makes sense in the end, but yet, I feel a bit proud for what I have been able to accomplish, since there is so much that I can still look forward to doing in my life, and I have already accomplished so much at such a young age! Yet, I don't think that I will ever get to have that experience of being a normal teenager, but I guess I should be okay with that since this is how I have been raised to be.

I was a straight A student in a prestigious school, it was all due to my memory though, I did graduate high school last year and have started attending a community college to get the basic courses done, so I can go to a university after two years of these basic has been times where I have not gotten a perfect score on a test, but I always have to try my best. Math is the hardest class for me, considering that memory plays a large part in all other classes, such as memorizing the key terms of a document, or only having to look up a word once in a dictionary to always have it on file somewhere in my memory! It has major disadvantages to it as well, people tend to only think of the good things that can come from having a photographic memory, but it is definitely not perfect. One example, is always remembering when you do something wrong, because you will always remember it, so it can loom over you like a cloud.

I have always felt out of place when it came to school, when I was around kids my age I felt as though they were all extremely immature, even when I was surrounded by a bunch of seniors, I felt as though none of them were really negligible, also, I feel as though I can always depend on my teachers, they gave me Calculus in 8th grade, it was the first class I had trouble passing. The reason for that is because math does not require a good memory, but a good mind built for **problem solving**, which is something that I do have a bit of trouble accomplishing. I still think that if I were to barely pass that class I could have skipped all the grades I did. Well, that did sound a bit self absorbed... I seem to have a problem with that lately. I am going to go out and get a job soon, or maybe take over the business my father left behind.

My father and my mother got very ill from a strange pandemic that reached across Japan last year, it wreaked havoc everywhere it went. My mother recovered while my father passed away. I remember everything like it was yesterday, since they found out by the time I was 8 that I had a photographic memory, they refused to let me see him once he got into critical condition, I guess it is because they knew I would remember how he looked then and not how he looked when he was smiling, when he was happy. For that, I must thank them, because I won't have to remember how my father was when he was six, but I will remember how he was when he was happy, I will remember the first time that I got to go out and have ice cream with him. My father and my mother are the only people I have truly been able to open up to so far in my life. So, his death was a tragedy, but I am glad that my mother made through it, I don't know what I possibly would have done if she had passed away too. Due to his passing however, when I turn 18, I am destined to take control of the vast business that he had built up since he was a child.

I hope that in this game people will understand that I can only communicate through this thing called Private Messaging where you can tell someone something through chat, but not saying any words. Anyways, what should I say to them? I am so confused! I KNOW! I can just tell them that it is a lot of fun to get to meet new people such as them, because then I get to make new friends. Nope, I cannot do that, what I just thought of saying was way to cheesy. If I messaged people that I don't know how many people would message me back making fun of my failure of a greeting... Why not just go with hello, I tried reassuring myself but it did not make me any less nervous. Trying to interact with kids at my school never has really gone very far in the past, so I am just afraid no matter what I try to say may come out wrong or in a bad way, I guess I should stop worrying myself, there is going to be over 10k players I should find at least one friend in that mass of players willing to accept me because I still won't be able to understand language even when I could be able to hear.

Anyways, in my school, I was bullied a lot when I was 6 and in 5th grade, but it all stopped after I told my dad and all the kids that used to bully me disappear, I have a good idea what happened I just don't want to face the realization. The strange thing that I always think about when I think about my 5th and 6th grade experiences is those bullies though. They really only made fun of me by pushing me around and saying things about me right in front of me because they knew that I couldn't hear anything they were saying. My father was very protective of me, personally I think he is a bit overprotective, he doesn't, 'I guess I should say didn't, but I know that he is still watching out for me from the sky,' want anything at all to happen to me and if something does happen then he will quickly come and fix it the best that he can. The worst thing about this is that I cannot date anyone, however, I am not to keen on zeroing in on any one person yet, but if I fall for someone I may not get the opportunity to date them because I want to respect my father's final wishes. I guess that at least for now it shouldn't bother me to much because I don't like anyone in particular just yet, but I tend to always think about the future.

I do tend to like things a certain way when it comes down to it, I just try to hide that fact from those that I don't know, few know that about me. I want to use this fact to try and make myself a better person. I know that a lot of people may say that it is impossible for someone like me to do anything wrong, but, there is a lot of things that I know that I do wrong. Despite my perks, I have a lot of things that may not be the best, but I will always strive toward my goals! If there is one thing that I definitely want to work on it would probably be socializing with other people. Which is probably something that a lot of teenagers tend to take for granted, unlike what normal teenagers can do, which is just say everything, and don't have to put a lot of thought into what they say, I have to take the time to write down everything that I want to say, and usually by the time I am finished writing the person I wanted to say hello to has probably already left the room, so I have tried taking the liberty of pre-writing potential conversations, but things never go as planned, because then I have to flip through a note book to find the correct page I want to show to them, and I have a tendency to have the page slip and show a different answer than what I intended.

Unlike what a lot of people may think about me, I have a lot of problems I have that most teenagers don't really have, such as once in a while having to help keep my father's business in check, and then there is always the fact that I cannot hear. I think I may have forgotten to mention exactly how the people on the TV shows conversed with me to ask me various questions, what happened was whatever they said would pop up on the screen of a tablet I had been given before the show had started and that was how they talked to me. However, I can't do that anywhere else, so, in order for me to understand anyone I have to ether attempt to read lips or have them do what I do, write down what they want to say, which can seriously agitate some people. As for my father's business? I appointed several people that I knew my father trusted to run the company and they only come to me when they have problems or things that they need me to sign, seeing as I will be the successor of my company, because I know my mother could never handle something like this well.

Maybe a reason that I have not yet found anyone that fits my jurisdiction of a good guy is because my qualifications for someone is way to high, but that's okay, because I don't want to ever force myself in a relationship that I know won't end well. However, I have decided that I will date the next guy that is not perverted, and has a good personality, I don't care about looks personally. Recently though, I have found few that could even closely reach my quota, but, I never plan to find love, because I don't think that anyone could ever truly love me... However, maybe, just maybe, someday, I will find a person who can do that, but as it stands there is non who can come to mind, then again, fate always has a way of pulling it's strings.

**Author's note= Have you enjoyed the first chapter so far, and do you like Angel as a character? I know she can be strange but she is shy and doesn't like speaking much so don't judge her k? :D Anyways, if you enjoyed this so far please Favorite, Follow, Review, and all that good and fun stuff because there is much more to be seen my friends and I always want to hear your opinions on my writings!**


	2. I Must get SAO!

-Chapter 2=Get The Game!-

After having dinner I had decided to do some quick studying about the game then go and camp out to try and get a hard copy, considering I got lucky and my hometown is one getting some of the games, I want to make sure I get my hands on one! However, I know that a lot of problems will arise due to the fact that I am not able to speak, or able to hear what others want to say. I can use a sketch pad, or note book in order to write down what I need, I hope that they will easily be able to understand my handicap and not question it, _that_, would be really embarrassing. Not because I have the disability, but because people would probably doubt that I have it. Sometimes, I feel like I really am cursed, and others, I feel like it is a blessing.

'So, the interactive game has some unique abilities that will be given to only a few select players, hmm...' Angel thought to herself reviewing what Beta Testers had so far said about the video game that she wanted. 'I hope that I can get one!' she said continuing her train of thought, 'but I have to get a copy of the game first.' and with that she shut down her computer and put on her coat. Her mother scribbled something quickly down on a notepad and held it up "_Be Careful, There is a lot of creeps out there that prowl around in the night, I love you and have fun! But not to much fun..._" is what she wrote down.

Angel slowly took out a tiny scribble pad and jotted down "_Okay, I promise! Love you, bye!_" then scooted out of the door before her mother could say anything more.

Angel started walking and noticed that a lot of people seemed to be looking at her. Most of them were guys that were around her age, so she looked down embarrassed. She thought that they could all tell that she was deaf just by looking at her. Until at one point a boy approached her, and said something. When she brought out her note book and wrote "_Hello, I am Angel, I cannot speak because I am deaf, I also can not hear you, sorry._" He then slowly stepped back and left her alone, she felt as though she was a bit betrayed., 'Well, that sure was strange, I thought that he was the one that approached me,' she thought to herself.

Sometimes it really seems like a lot of people do not like those who have a disability. It can really hurt sometimes, everyone should know that all people have a disability either it be trouble doing a certain task or not being able to see or even speak. 'I am already here?' she slowly cocked her head at the video game store. 'yep, this is the place' she thought to herself. 'Wow! So many people! Will I even have a chance at getting a game...' she started thinking about how hard it would be to get one from someone who had already bought one, but as she was walking the down the street to head for the bottom of the line, someone moved so she could take a place in front of them!

"_Arigato!_" she quickly wrote down in order to thank him, he shrugged and took out a piece of note book paper out of a back pack he had strapped on his back, "_Are you deaf too?_" she gasped at the thought, 'Another deaf person!?'. She scribbled quickly on another sheet of paper "_Yes, yes I am._" she wrote. "_Wait, I have seen you before!_" He wrote, "_Really?_", she replied, "_You were on the TV, your a genius who remembers every moment of your life. Giving you a big edge in school! I heard you graduated at 10, and your name is Angel Tochina!_" he jotted down excited. "_I didn't recognize you at first because you are much prettier in real life!_" He blushed. "_Arigato!_" she said cheerfully, then sat down and took a book that she had wrapped in her coat, the name of the book was the classic _Romeo and Juliet_ by William Shakespeare.

After about an hour of reading silently, she fell asleep, and awoke the next morning. It is 20 minutes until the store opens! She said, checking a clock that was hanging inside of the store. She turned around to see him sleeping, 'he really is cute' she thought to herself. His eyes were closed but she remembered them being a bright hazel, with the rims of them being a bright green, and as you went to the center they turned into a deep brown, his hair was an unnatural grey. 'Then again, my hair is naturally white.' she thought, debating whether or not his hair was natural. She went over and he started to open his eyes only to see the beautiful, angelic girl staring at him, she was still lost in thought until she noticed his cheeks turning flushed 'huh...' she thought. 'Oh dear, he's awake! He probably saw me staring at him, how embarrassing!'.

'Why on earth am I starting to think like this? I never get nervous around guys, why am I getting nervous now? Is it because he is the first person that has talked with me in a long time. Correction, wrote. Or is it because he is deaf to so we have that sort of deep connection in being able to understand each other... I do not know... How strange.' '_I am Johnna_' he wrote down '_I saw you looking at me_' he continued writing '_It was cute_'. Then he turned away for a moment, hiding his eyes from her using his hair so that she could not see the blush that was slowly creeping on his face.

'_Let's go! They are open!_' I grabbed his hand as we headed for the entrance, we both got in and I ended up getting into an argument over the fact that I am deaf and they would not believe me...'_I need Sword Art Online_' I wrote down, he finally took down a copy of the game '_I need a nerve gear as well_' she continued to write, then he grabbed a nerve gear as well '_That will be 15,898 yen please!' _She started counting the money but just gave up and handed him 20,000 yen, took the games and ran out of the door, more like slowly walked, due to the large amount of people trying to cram for the doors making it very hard to make a hasty escape.

She started to run home and then suddenly the name ran through my head and I stopped dead in my tracks 'Johnna'... she thought, then started running again, thinking that he would have left the store by now with his version, and that eventually we may see each other in the video game. 'Still, I think that I was really mean to just run away from the store like that without even saying good-bye to him, he was nice enough to let me ahead of him.' she thought, debating about her guilty feelings the entire walk home.

_**_-=Two and a quarter Hours Later=-_**_

'It took me a good two hours to figure out how all of this stuff works, now hopefully I can get to experience the big deal known as _sound' _she thought to herself cheerfully as she looked at the boxes that lay across the floor and take one more look at the game, then, 'I almost forgot!' she almost through open the video game case and looked inside, the game was already in the computer, ready to play 'The Manual!' she thought happily, she want to know how **Everything** in this game works! I started glancing through it, remembering every detail. 'It says that it locks your body into a state where you cannot move, what if some error were to occur?' she thought worried 'Well, it can not do no harm now can it' I said with a glimmering smile.

Then, as she finished skimming the book she had one last thought before she slipped on the nerve gear 'I wonder if my photographic memory would still be in use when I am zapped into the virtual reality game...' she then linked up the game, but had to look up how to start the game... '**WHAT! I HAVE TO SAY SOMETHING... Well, I have to say Link Start... BUT I CANNOT SPEAK!**... Oh, what a relief, you can set it on by clicking' she slowly reaching for a button on the back of the nerve gear, a menu appeared on the screen counting down from "10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1! Scent, Sight, Sound, Taste, Touch, Language, English! LINK, STARTED!" 'I can hear!' I thought to myself... but... 'what did it mean... "Link Started" what does that mean?' She debated for a while... hmm


	3. Enter into, Sword Art Online!

'Wow!' Angel thought to herself, 'kind of intoxicated that I know have the ability to hear, hmm... how should I have my avatar look like. I like how I am, except my clothing, so, lets change into something new!' She looked through various outfits until she found one that she thought she looked perfect in. 'Oh my! It is amazing!' the one she had selected was a white outfit, it had boots that were quite small and looked tight against her legs, but it didn't look like it would be painful, there was a shirt that actually spread down to her knees, and it had a white sash that wrapped around her just above the thighs, then, there was the hair. Her pure white silky hair had a small bow on the top along that was really long and looked like the two laces just floated.

She selected the outfit, a message popped up quickly reading "_Are you sure you would like to select this as your Avatar?_" She quickly clicked yes and was engulfed by a bright blue flame, and for a moment she was nowhere, then was zapped into the _Town of Beginnings_.

Angel looked around, and saw that no one else seemed to use there names as there usernames, and felt slightly embarrassed because she used her name. After a few minutes of just basking in the glory that is Sword Art Online, she sat at the fountain, and dipped her hand into the water, 'It almost is like this _is_ the real world... it's just like it...' she thought to herself. Suddenly, a message popped up '_Hi, I am new like you! My name is Klein, I tried talking to you but you were not responding, is that how you look in real life? Besides the outfit?' _She instantly shot up and turned around to see the guy with a username of Klein staring up at her '_I am in the real world deaf, so I couldn't understand your pleas, and yes, this is how I look in real life_'

'_Really?!_' he typed, 'Creep...' she thought '_I could accompany you on your journey's for a while if you are in need of any help, I have a photographic memory, so even though I started 5 minutes ago, I have a basic idea of how to do various things!_' she jumped for joy after typing it. '_Sure, but Kirito has to come along to kay!_' he typed quickly, almost effortlessly. '_I don't plan on starting a guild or anything_' she replied and then crossed her arms. '_Let's go_' is how he responded, then grabbed her arm shoving her through the crowd.

He yelled to Kirito, who was getting ready to leave them "WAIT, KIRITO!", Kirito turned around and saw Angel, his jaw almost dropped, but he quickly said "Who is she?" and snapped out of it. "She said that her name is Angel, and his is how she looks in real life, so yes, you had a right to gawk at her for a moment." Klein replied "Oh yeah, and she can't understand anything we say!" he added. "And why not..." 3,2,1. "I did not gawk at her, I was surprised you were near a girl that didn't hit you..." Kirito said, a bit agitated. Klein suddenly had a very serious look on his face and then a message popped up on both of their screens "_What is going on you two?",_ it was from Angel, both of them looked at her, then Kirito calmed down and Klein replied "_Oh nothing_", he then smirked because he was still holding her arm, she noticed and shyly pulled away, then bonked him on the head again like he was a wacka'mole.

"She is deaf in real life, so she cannot understand any language, despite being able to hear in game" Klein said, rubbing his now throbbing head. "So that's why" he put one hand on his chin as he thought about why a girl like her would ever talk to a guy like Klein. Then about why he recongnized her. He then wrote to Angel "_Are you that famous girl with a photographic memory? Or is my thoughts deceiving me? You look a bit like her, but your... oh it's nothing. So are you her?_". Angel slowly shook her head yes and then they headed off without a word being said, but this time Kirito made sure that Klein did not get near her, by going in between them.

**_-=Twenty Minutes Later=-_ (Kirito's Point Of View)**

Whenever Kirito **attempted** to teach Angel something, he would notice that she would already be doing it, 'I wonder... Was she a beta-tester too?' he shook off the mere idea when he had remembered the simple and should be well known fact that Angel had a photographic memory. He noticed that unlike when he had first met her, just a short while ago, she seems to have a tiny smile on her face unlike what he thought she usually kept on her face, which would be a blank expression.

As he watched her for a moment longer, he noticed what must have attracted Klein into wanting to talk to her. 'She really is beautiful, Klein, was right' he suddenly stood up 'But, I am a solo player!'. "Well, Kirito, I gotta say that it was a lot of fun today" Klein said, "But I have to go, it's 5:25 and I have a pizza ordered for 5:30!", "I have to go to" Kirito responded. "So your going to leave that poor cute little girl to fend for herself?!" Klein nudged his shoulder playfully, when Kirito looked back at her, he noticed that she was actually now in a bed of grass, and was sound asleep 'So cute!' "Fine, I will stay" he said deciding it for the best not to argue.

"I am going to join with some friends later, you can join us if you want to!" Klein said cheerfully. "No thanks, I got her" he pointed over to the sleeping girl, "I am going to have a lot on my plate with this one" he lied. 'I know that she will not have any trouble playing this game, I mean, earlier she did not even die... when, when I was beginning I had died a lot of times before finally getting into the groove of things, she... hasn't died once...' "Kirito?!" Klein yelled, "What on Earth were you thinking about?", "Nothing, just go get your pizza, it's past the time"

Angel seemed to have gotten some sort of idea of what they were talking about, she sent a message to both of them "_Let's all log out at the same time if you guys want to, if not, I'll stand here and relax in the meadow, Oh and Kirito. Thanks for trying to help me out and all. However, I felt as though I was wasting your time because I am not needing of much help_." Kirito blushed, as she sent another message but this one was just to him, "_Say your username for me please_" "Kirito," he said aloud. "K-k-k-k-ki-kir-kirit-kirito" she struggled to say it, he turned stunned. 'Even her voice is adorable!' he thought, as his face burned into crimson red and she suddenly kissed him on the cheek. 'What the heck!' he thought to himself.

"**OH YEAH!**" Klein shouted, the two suddenly broke apart both blushing "**MY PIZZA OH NOOOOO!**" "_It is time to go guys..." _she typed, then pulled herself together into a small and shy smile "3","2","1". Angel went to select the logout button, but quickly realized that it was not there. Kirito said something aloud, but she obviously could not understand anything that he had decided to say, he messaged her, "_Do you know if it is possible for a bug like this to occur, Angel? I know that the server owners could easily just log everyone out of the nerve gears, so something has to be wrong._" Angel replied quickly, her nimble fingers typing at a speed that everything almost seemed like a blur "_It is not possible for a bug, or glitch like this to occur, the beta-testers would have had the problem, and you didn't have it during your two months of beta-testing right? Even if it was possible we would have been logged out by now. This will seriously hurt the game and the company later on. The longer that we can't log out the worse for the company that is sponsoring this game. So, if they didn't mean this, then they would have logged us out by now_"

"_Yeah!__ Wait how did you know I was a beta-tester?!_" he responded 'man how embarrassing!', with a worried look on his face "_Because you kept trying to help me out like I was a lost puppy silly!_" she told him.

**(_Angel's Point of View of the transportation and events that followed, while, everything else on Kirito and Klein's side were almost the same as in the anime/manga, except for the fact that Kirito had worried a little bit about what had happened to_ Angel.)**

Then, suddenly, she was engulfed by a sky blue flames, just like the ones that had occurred when she had first entered the game. These ones though, they looked a bit more fierce. Suddenly, she noticed that Kirito, and Klein were no where to be found, and she realized that she was all on her own. 'Well, it's back to normal' she thought to herself sadly. Something pulled her attention to a strange label in the sky, it read "Warning", 'I wonder what could possibly be wrong...'


	4. Kayaba's True Intentions

-Chapter 4=The Death Game Begins- (This was mostly in Angel's shoes)  
As Angel stared intensely at the flashing warning sign, it started to multiply, and within 10 seconds, the whole town square was surrounded by a strange dome of these hexagons reading "Warning" and "System announcement" suddenly, a red liquid started oozing out from in between the signs. Then, it looked like the red liquid was taking shape, an electric current started flowing through it. Until it finished taking shape and a hooded figure was staring down at us. However, this hooded figure it did not have a face 'It is not possible that, this, is the game master!'. she continued staring, until a booming voice started speaking.

"Attention players, I welcome you, to my world" 'What is he saying?' I thought to myself, suddenly, a message popped up, words being added as he said them 'ohm, well, I am glad they considered the deaf people in this!' "My name is Akihiko Kayaba, and as of this moment, I am now in control of this world." 'This guy must be nuts!' I thought to myself. "I am sure most of you have already noticed an item missing from your main menus, the log out button" 'I don't know what I would have done if it wasn't for that button you pressed if you can't talk, I would have been in the dark!' she thought. "Let me assure you, this is not a defect in the game, I repeat, this is not a defect. This is how Sword Art Online was designed to be". 'You have got to be kidding me, is this guy serious' I thought, shaking my head. "You cannot log yourselves out of SAO, and no one from the outside will be able to shutdown or remove the Nerve Gear from your head. If anyone attempts to do so, a transmitter inside the Nerve Gear will discharge a microwave signal into your skull, destroying your brain and ending your life".

'That is possible, it is all in the wiring. I think that it was somewhere in a site I checked out saying that Nerve Gears are dangerous, of course, at the time I believed that all to be lies due to the fact that the Nerve Gears are, well, where, just used as games.' she thought, 'How will I let everyone know?!' she hit herself on her head and a few people looked at her strangely, before continuing looking at Kayaba.

"Despite my warning," he continued, I was focused on looking at the screen that was typing everything for me, since I couldn't understand anything that he was saying "the families and friends of some of the players have attempted of removing the Nerve Gear. An unfortunate decision at the least, as a result, the game now has 213 less players than when it began. They have been deleted from both Aincrad and the real world." Angel looked up at him as news coverage started surrounding him, there was tons of them and they were all circling him.

"As you can see, international media outlets have round the clock coverage of everything, including the deaths. At this point, it is safe to assume that the likelihood of a Nerve Gear being removed is minimal at best. I hope that this brings you a little comfort as you try to clear the game. It is important to remember the following, there is no longer anyway to revive someone in the game, if your HP drops to zero, your avatar will be deleted from the system, forever, and the Nerve Gear, will simultaneously destroy your brain", Angel never broke eye contact with the message, she was intent on seeing what he had to say next. 'There is no possible way for this to be a joke anymore.'

"There is only one way for a player to escape now," 'and that is?' she thought eagerly, waiting for the rest of the sentence to come to light, well, be written down on the message board for her. "You must clear the game", 'That actually, makes a bit of sense, so, you have to finish the game in order to be rid of the game. I wonder if the other players can understand...' "Right now you are all gathered on floor 1, the lowest level of Aincrad. If you can get to the boss chamber and defeat the boss, you may advance to the next floor, defeat the boss on floor 100, and you will clear the game!" the message told me. '100 levels... Incredible, it's hard to believe that it is even possible when the Beta-testers had 2 months and unlimited lives and could not defeat past floor 10!'

"Last but not least, I have placed a little present in the item storage of every player, please, have a look." Angel slowly opened her item menu, 'What could I possibly do with a mirror? Well, I guess I should take it out, since everyone else is.' All around me I noticed people were getting engulfed by blue flames, she quickly was engulfed as well. 'I wonder why the flames do not burn' However, I guess since I didn't lie about my appearance nothing changed, I still had the gear I was wearing, but, all my items that were in my storage were gone 'Why would all of our items be deleted?' (If you watched the first episode of Sword Art Online when Kirito went to pull out the mirror guess what, **it was the **_**only**_** item in his item storage**)

When the flames other people got engulfed in cleared away, I was guessing that they would delete the avatars and show peoples true faces, etc. and I was proven to be right. Everyone else seemed to drastically change, it surprised me how much other people had changed themselves when they selected there avatars, I am guessing since I didn't change at all that they assumed that nothing had changed for me, because a few people who noticed me earlier had noticed that even though the blue flames had engulfed me too, I had not changed. There is nothing that I can do though, because I cannot speak or understand when other people speak, it is futile to try and solve the problem.

Others that were not close to me were doing a few things, some looked at themselves in shock, some tried to find there friends. While, in a few rare cases some where offended by the looks of the person they were talking to. There was even a couple that turned out to be both boys, it was very amusing, and I could not help myself from giggling a tiny bit.

After a few more seconds of confusion, my message board popped back up, and Kayaba started talking again "Right now, you are probably be wondering 'Why? Why would Akihiko Kayaba, developer of Sword Art Online and Nerve Gear do this? Ultimately, my goal was a simple one, the reason I created Sword Art Online, was to control the fate of a world of my design." 'I knew he was nuts!' I threw my hand up in the air in victory. 'knew it!' After a few more seconds he continued.

"As you can see, I have completed my goal. This marks the end of the tutorial, and the official launch of Sword Art Online. Players, I wish you the best of luck" I suddenly became completely submerged in my thoughts as Kayaba turned back into the red liquid and seeped back in between the tiles, and as the tiles disappeared. Then, I suddenly crept back into reality. 'I heard that there is a town close to here, soon all the monsters near here will all be gone, so it would be better to go to the next town and train there. I wonder if I could meet a friend there!' she thought, then started running.


	5. Let The Game, BEGIN!

-Chapter 5=Let The Game Begin-

She hastily pulled out her map and started heading for the closest town. When a Timber Wolf jumped out at her, she felt herself start to change, her heart started thumping in chest, and she slowly started to zero in on the target. Unable to look away, she focused in on it, allowing her power to slowly build up, before suddenly striking. She leaped and landed on the wolf's back, stabbing it in the head leaving a lethal blow, the wolf howled painfully as it disintegrated into thousands of little crystals, more wolves started to come out of the woods, and onto the trail that she was on. She felt herself let go, letting her body do as it wished as it fought for life, because she knew that this would be a life or death situation.

She went in for a second wolf, charging mercilessly until clumsily slipping, causing one of the wolves to pounce on her, she could hear the wolf panting, and felt as the slobber of the wolf slowly drooled down and hit her square in the face. The wolves long claws started to dig through her skin, and gradually started draining her health. Just as the rest of the savage beasts were about to pounce on her, she grabbed her sword and put the blade through the wolves stomach, and slit it across as the wolf whimpered in pain, before, just like the first wolf to challenge her, it vanished into thousands of small crystals that started floating away before disappearing. All the wolves decided to charge at her at once, before she could even think about what she was doing, she twisted one of her legs and did a twirl, holding both of her hands on her sword, unlike when she usually just has one hand on her blade.

Angel kept the twirl up until she noticed the familiar particles of death swirling around her, meaning the end of the battle. A screen popped up saying what she had gotten from the battle with them, she knew that she was close to the next town though, because the wolves were a sort of protection to try and prevent people from entering. Angel felt her mind start to fog up and she fell to the ground, as her eyes closed she saw that there were travelers also heading for the town, and that they were heading directly towards her, she also noticed that her health was in the red.

* * *

**_-=A Few Days Later=-_**

Angel woke up with 2 people surrounding her, both were boys. One had golden hair, and green eyes, his hair covered one of his eyes, but he seemed to be annoyed at this fact seeing as he was constantly swaying it about. The other boy, he had blonde hair, and blue eyes, his hair was a bit spikey, but looked like it would be soft to the touch, it also looked as though it was styled, and that it would change a lot if it were simply combed. Both of them were decent looking, the blonde haired one was short, and a bit on the scrawny side, while the golden haired boy seemed a bit taller, he was built. Also, both of them looked her age, and she noticed that it seemed as though there armor was on the low side seeing as it looked a bit torn.

She sent a message to them reading "_May I ask what happened? And who you two maybe?_". A message was sent in response by the boy with blue eyes, the more she looked at them the brighter they seemed... Angel seemed a bit intrigued by them. "_I am the blonde haired boy, my name is Hajime, and Goldilocks over there is Yuichi. We both found you as you passed out by the Timber wolves,_" although it was from Hajime, his username is Yoshiro. It seems that Yuichi's username is his name though, like hers. She smiled at the thought. "_The battle was amazing, I have never seen anything like it before, you are a great fighter, I see that your username is Angel, and it suits you. So, what is your name? You truly are a great fighter, although I think you suffered some injuries that caused you to pass out right after, we rushed over and killed the few Timber Wolves that remained._"This time it was Yuichi who sent the message. "_My name... Is Angel.__ Also, arigato. I owe you two my life. However, I need to go train, currently I am only at level 3._" She sent this message to both of them, before taking her boots, both of the guys grabbed one of her shoulders and typed with there other hands.

"_Would you join our guild? It is called The Swordsmen._" they both sent the message at around the same time. "_Sorry, currently I am a Solo Player, and I plan to stay that way for a while, till I get strong enough to think of myself as good enough to be in a guild._" she responded and then started walking out the door, before turning and waving goodbye.

She started to slowly walk through the town, and started to get a feel for everything there, 'It is all so calm! I love it, it is so rare that a place can actually radiate peace and tranquility' As she was walking she noticed a familiar face and ran towards him. 'It's Kirito!' She thought to herself happily, "Kirito!" she yelled his name, even though that was all she could say, she was happy that she could say it, he turned around surprised, "Angel?" Kirito said aloud.

* * *

**_-=Kirito's Point of View (5 Minutes Earlier)=-_**

"Hmm, I have a lot of stuff that I don't need." he said shuffling through his item storage, "I should probably head to the shop and sell it all, than maybe get a new sword." So, he started to head of on his journey to go and sell everything, he decided to go look at the swords first, and he stood near the shopping district of the town for a while, trying to find a sign of a blacksmith's shop when he suddenly heard his name ring through the crowd. He recognized the voice that said it almost instantly, and the voice that he heard was none other than "Angel?"

He got a message from Angel that read "_Kirito, is that you? By the Blacksmith's shop?_" 'So I was standing behind it the whole entire time' He face palmed as he realized that he was. "_Yes it is me, I have not seen you since launch day._" he responded to her question, both happy, relieved, and a bit embarrassed at the same time. 'I still can't believe I was pretty much leaning on it the entire time...' "_Yeah, I got attacked by a pack of Timber Wolves and passed out for a while after beating them. At least I gained two levels from the attacks._" 'I wonder what she was thinking heading out here without going with someone, then again' he thought while resting a hand on his chin, 'I did that too...' "_Impressive, are you here for a Sword too?_" he typed, after breaking out of his train of thought. "_Yes, if you were looking for this place than out of curiosity. Why were you leaning against the place for so long?_" she asked a bit gingerly. "_Well, it has been a while since I have been here_" he typed his response quickly than crossed his arms.

"_I am very sorry than, this is my first time I have ever been here though, and I saw that you were leaning right above the Sword sign._" Kirito moved a bit then looked up, seeing that she was right. "_Why don't we go and get some swords._" he responded after realizing his mistake.

* * *

_-=**Flashback, Kirito's Point of View, one day after official launch**=-_

Kirito laid his hand on the cheek that Angel had kissed while laying on his bed, 'Why did she do that?' he thought to himself, 'What a unique girl' he thought, trying to keep himself from calling her a negative name, he could not figure out why though. 'I wonder what she is doing right now, I hope she survived the first day. It definitely would not feel right to have lost her after I pretty much abandoned her and Klein at launch day, even though I didn't see her, she must have been so confused, because she could not understand anything of what Kayaba was saying. I hope that Kayaba had planned for people who were deaf.'


	6. A way of thanks and the bow of Angel's

_-=**Chapter 6= A way of thanks, and the bow of Angel's (In Kirito's Point of View : It is a cute little side story :))=-_**

They walk into the store, and both of them take a bronze sword and pay for it. Kirito sighs and sends a message saying "_I only came in here for your sake_" then both of them left. She tried saying Kirito's name again "K-kiri-Kirito!" he looked over at her 'It still surprises me when she says my username' "_Yes, Angel?" _She looked at him with a determined look on her face and typed "_Stay here! I will be right back!_" and she ran off.

**_-=A few minutes later=-_**

"_**Kiritoooo**!_" she yelled as she rounded the last corner. "_I got bread and water_" is the message she decided to send after thinking a few moments on her way back. She handed him his bread and took a nibble out of her own. After she got finished she started typing a message that was so fast Kirito couldn't keep track of where her hands were "_Kirito, can we go swimming? I think that it could possibly be a nice change of pace for a while to not have to fight or anything. I guarantee that you were constantly training before we met back up_"

'So she is asking to go swimming with me?' he thought to himself, he started blushing as he thought of her in a bathing suit, he gulped nervously trying to keep his blush down. Then, he typed a message saying "_Is there even a beach on Floor one?_", she shook her head yes and typed "_Can I show you? It is really more like a small pond but it would still be a lot of fun. Plus, we can fight the fish there if you want to train after the swimming!_" He looked at her for a moment and typed "_Okay_". While they were talking they did not notice that the two boys who saved Angel when she was almost killed by the Timber Wolves, had just found her and they yelled her name "ANGEL!"

'Who are they?' Kirito thought about who they could be for a few seconds, before giving up and asking her "_Angel, do you know who those to are?_" "So are you why Angel was in such a rush to leave?" both of the boys said in unison. 'She was went looking for me?' he thought, and started blushing, he was glad that Angel didn't notice his blush as he hid it from her view. "I don't think so" is how Kirito decided to respond to the two boys. "It is an honor to meet you, I am Yuichi, and the boy with blonde hair, is Hajime. We saved Angel after she almost got killed by some Timber Wolves, and she passed out for a few days, when she woke up she messaged us for a minute or two and just up and left after refusing to join our guild, we assumed there had to be a good reason, so we left it at that. Would you guys like to go train?"

Angel sent Kirito a message saying "_I think they have answered that question by now, so you know who they are?_" Kirito responded with an "_Yeah_" to Angel and told Yuichi "We were just about to head out, so sure." "_Can we swim at this small pond I found while training before the launch on launch day?_" she turned to the three and smiled, then sent a message saying "_Can you say please?_" to Kirito. "Please," then he sighed and looked at her as she tried to say it. "P-pl-plea-please!" she said sweetly. "How are we supposed to say no to that?" all three of the guys said in unison. Kirito was thinking about how cute her voice was, and with that they all set off to the pond that she was talking about

**_-=One hour later=-_**

When Angel came from the woods in a bathing suit all three guys pretty much lost their cool. Until, she sent a message to all three saying "Let's Swim", which snapped all of them out of their trance. 'I hope that she didn't notice me looking at her..." Kirito thought to himself. With that, Hajime and Yuichi ran into the water, but, Kirito had decided to stay behind, and Angel quickly sat beside him. Then, looked at him, worried. Kirito seemed to have this haze of confusion of the situation over him. "_Are you okay Kirito? You seem upset_" Kirito looked at her, surprised that she could notice his confusion.

He smiled and responded saying "_I am not really upset, just sorting a lot of things_" 'I hope that she doesn't notice I am blushing..." Kirito started getting a bit nervous, and she noticed it so she grabbed one of his hands. "Kirito?" she started to type, "_The whole reason we came here was to relax and swim! Please change and swim?_" she sent the message then smiled at him, and said "Please!" 'Why does she want me to swim too? I guess she just wants everyone to have fun, not just her. That's really sweet!_'_

_"Fine I guess I could swim with you guys, I can do all this thinking later_" she still had a hold of his hand, he noticed and blushed a bit deeper, then gulped trying to calm down so that she wouldn't notice it. "_Then Let's Go!_" she said and started walking to the little pond, and holding his arm tighter as though to assure that he wouldn't back out of it. 'I guess it could be fun to take a break for a while. When they got to the pond, she let go of his hand, and ended up tripping, but thanks to Kirito's speed he was able to catch her before she hit the ground.

'That could have been bad' he thought to himself, then noticed that she was blushing a crimson red because Kirito was still holding her. 'I better let her go before this get's awkward.' When he let her go she opened her message board and started typing, still blushing, 'Well, at least she doesn't try to hide the fact that she is blushing like I do, she sure is cute when she does it too...' "_Thank you, Kirito! I owe you, that probably would have been very embarrassing if I had fallen before I even got into the water!"_

He looked at her for one more second, she was wearing a bikini, it was mostly white, and he thought that it resembled her usual attire, the other color on it was a pure golden color. He smiled, then responded saying "_No problem_". She then put a hand in the water and splashed him in the face, then sent a message saying "_G_otcha!" before Kirito splashed her back, and within a few minutes both of them were soaked head to toe even though they had not gotten deeper than their knees in the water.

Hajime and Yuichi were both just watching the two and laughed a bit whenever something they found funny happened, they quickly realized that Kirito and Angel probably like each other but don't know it yet, judging by the blushes on both of their faces. "Kirito!" she said scornfully, as the bow that had been in her hair was whipped away by the water, letting her hair fall down, her hair was actually much longer than a normal girls, it reached all the way to her knees, but the way that she had it up in the bow made it to where her hair was only the middle of her back, which made it still look longer than normal, just not _**That**_long.

For most girls hair that long would look horrible, but when Kirito saw it his opinion was probably that it looked even better with it down than it did up. She started looking for the ribbon that held up her hair and eventually found it, but it took around 5 minutes of looking through the water with her eyes, which was very hard for her. She obviously was upset by then and asked "_Why did you pull the bow out of my hair?_" and Kirito put both of his hands up before typing "_Sorry, it was just an accident, I really did not mean to..._"

"_Could you please put the bow back into my hair? I like it a lot..._", Angel was losing her patience, which she usually had buckets of, but apparently she really deeply cared about her bow, because she was down to her last drop with it out of her hair 'Why does she like having the bow in her hair so much?' he sent a reply asking that question and she replied with "_Because I think I look cuter with it on, and, I have always liked bows, but the ones in this game kind of float, I thought that it was really neat the way that the laces of the bow tied everything in my outfit together, that is why._" So he just gave up, not wanting to admit that he thought that she looked cuter without the bow.

They both stepped outside of the water and she turned around so that he could put it in her hair 'Crap, I haven't really done a girl's hair before, well, I did Suzu's that one time but that was it, and it did not end well for her.' "_Is something the matter Kirito? If you do not wish to do it then I could ask Hajime or Yuichi to do it_" he thought about it, and decided he didn't want them to touch her hair, so he did it himself. 'Why does this bow mean so much to her? I guess it does tie her normal outfit together, but still...' Kirito was debating various things in his head until he had finished and proudly looked at the bow that held her hair back up in a pony tail, it was not perfect, but it was great in Kirito's mind.

"_Arigato, Kirito, thank you so much! I bet it looks great_" he could tell she was suddenly in a very good mood. She hugged him and typed thank you one more time. The second that she had hugged him, he had a flash back to when she kissed his cheek. 'Gee, she sure has a way of saying thank you...'


	7. Training Week

**_-=Chapter 7=Training Week (Hajime's Point of View)****=-_**

Kirito thought that training this week would be a good idea in order to prepare for the boss meeting that will happen in two weeks, and I would have to agree with him, we need to get as experienced as we can, to have a decent amount of safety when we decide to battle the boss! We will all be heading out in a few minutes from the inn that we were staying at. Angel, Kirito, and Yuichi are all stronger than me, I am a bit jealous! That is okay though, it would be strange if I wasn't, when it was just me and Yuichi there did seem to be something missing from our team, now that we have Kirito and Angel, we seem a bit like a full team!

"Okay guys lets go!" I yelled, running toward the door, Angel, Kirito, and Yuichi all were already waiting, I have to prove myself when we go and decide to train, I have to get this weakness off of my chest! Everyone pulled their arms toward the middle of a small circle the four of them formed "Lets, TRAIN!" yelled everyone but Angel, she just sent a message to everyone saying to be careful and to train hard. Angel sure is a weird girl, I understand the message sending but even with Kirito teaching her how to talk now, even though it is a slow process, she seems to be learning a lot, but she isn't really using it when Kirito isn't around.

We all started walking together, I do feel secure knowing that we have Angel and Kirito now on our team, it did take quite a bit of bothering to get them to join, the only reason I think that Angel decided to join was because Kirito did. With those two, I am sure that me and Yuichi are safe, I took Yuichi in originally because he is shy and is not the biggest fan of fighting and killing. He probably would have died if he was left all on his own, I couldn't handle that so I decided to invite him into a guild I formed. Yuichi and the others are now my closest friends.

"Yuichi, Angel, Kirito, you guys are all awesome!" he said aloud, before realizing it. "Thank you" Yuichi was the only one that replied, Kirito said "Thanks" but he mumbled it to quietly for him to hear, and I think that Angel was paying to much attention to the road ahead to hear what I said, let alone understand. Ahead of us is the hunting ground, it has a lot of monsters ahead, because it is in a place few people go to, Kirito was showing the way, because this place was not mapped out, it was very hard to find your way through this area, but Kirito seemed to know it pretty well.

Kirito told us all about it!

_-=**Brief Flashback**=-_

_"This place is one of the best because almost no one knows their way through this forest, and we are relatively close to it, so it will be perfect for training this week. This area was my favorite place for training, even though it is eerie, please do not get scared though, and if you get attacked say something, and one of us will be over their to help you as soon as we can." Kirito was speaking about the plans for the week, going into detail about the monsters, the monsters are all similar to the original boars that you found outside of the Town of Beginnings, but these boars are much stronger, and they will charge if you enter their field of view._

_"Kirito" I said out loud, then went over to Angel and pointed at her, "What is she supposed to do? She doesn't know how to talk". Kirito thought about it for a few minutes, "I can teach her like how she learned how to say my name, I will teach her for three days before we head out to train._

**_-=Back to the present=-_**

"We are here", Kirito said quietly, "Everyone be dead silent, and wait for a few boar to show up before battling." Within a few seconds, five boar surrounded the team. Kirito looked around, noticing more boars slowly making their way out, and I did too, I was surprised that Kirito noticed all them so easily. "There is around 10 of the boars guys, we need to attack now, before we get killed." I said quietly, Kirito looked at me, then ran over to the boar and started to battle, when he started soon everyone followed. Angel took on three boars that was to my right, Kirito took on four that were behind me, I took just one boar, and Yuichi was trying to take on two.

'God this makes me feel weak,' I thought to myself, the others were fighting amazingly. Kirito, he was surrounded at all sides, and jumped up at the last second, causing all four boars to hit one another, and then he jumped down and stabbed a single boar in the back, then, killed another one before it could get up by stabbing it up the neck, nearly cutting its head off. Yuichi, he may not have looked very cool, but he was keeping both of the boars at bay by swinging at them, he could probably eventually kill both of them in a while. Angel, she used the same tactic as Kirito on two of the boars, then, she suddenly got hit by the third one, it sent her flying into a tree, and she seemed to have taken a lot of damage from it, seeing as her health went into the yellow, these must be really strong, to take that much health away from Angel with a single hit!

I stared back at the one I was supposed to be taking on, but it was to late, it smacked right into me, sending me flying, I was also put into the yellow by it's attacks, and by the time I found my way back to everyone all the boars were taken care of, but wait, something is missing... "Where is Angel?" I asked worried. "She went into the woods to try and find some water, she said she felt sweaty from the battle, she was able to kill all three of the boars she was challenging, but almost died doing it, she also refused my help, and Kirito's." Yuichi was explaining everything that happened. "And where is Kirito?" I asked, "He decided to train alone for a while, probably because Angel was tired and wanted time to recover from the battle. She is pretty determined you know, I am glad we found such great allies!" I nodded in agreement, now that I think about it, I probably would be dead without little shy Yuichi.

"You know Yuichi, I think I owe you my life. You calmed me down quite a bit, because when this death game started, all I could think about was winning, I was completely obsessed, and now, only two weeks later, everyone here as a friendship forming between one another, it really calmed me down. It all started when I decided I would take you in, even though it was really you who took me in. I hope that everyone can survive till the end." I said happily.

Until now, I haven't realized how lucky I am, but I think I can understand it just a little bit better now.

**_-=One Week Later=-_**

"Man! I can't believe how rigorous your training schedule is Kirito" I said out loud, Kirito just got back from the training week, during the week, he had almost no breaks, I thought that he was going to pass out of exhaustion at some point! He spent almost every waking moment he had training as hard as he could, he really is a strong willed player, I think that this week has really not only helped me, or Kirito, or Yuichi, or Angel, I think that it not only helped us, but the bond we shared. There was at least one time during the week were each of us needed to ask for help from our fellow guild members, since we all decided to share experience, we all gained an equal amount during the week, except since Kirito was training so hard, we let him keep his experience from the last three days of the training, he said he didn't need it he just wanted to be stronger, but we wouldn't let him share any more.

By the time we left that week we almost completely cleared the place of all the Boar that was there, and I think what ever was left got to be destroyed by Kirito. I can guarantee that Kirito is way stronger than any of us, even Angel, I have to say, even though I invited them to the guild, it seems as though Kirito and Angel sort of lead it now.

You know, everyone on this team has some amazing trait that makes them unique, that makes them stand out of the crowd, but I am just some guy. If you need proof then I will show you, I want to be amazing like them, like Kirito, Angel, and Yuichi.

Kirito, he is an insane fighter, and even though he is still just in the first floor, he looks as though he belongs in at least floor ten, I have yet to see someone surpass his swordsmanship. I noticed something else about Kirito that stands out, he seems to take a few moments to analyze the target before attacking it, just watching it, watching it's attacks, and then he just strikes, and when he does it looks amazing, he lets his sword start to glow and strikes, and for a moment it leaves behind the color green. Angel's sword when it glows from attacking, or what ever you call it, her color is white, and Yuichi's is blue. I, am red.

Angel, she is deaf in the real word, but that is pretty much all we know about her traits in the real world. She had some sort of tendency of completely losing herself in a battle, when she does, it even startles me, I never want to be on her blades business end. Despite that, she has frozen twice in battle, and both times it was in the middle of an attack. I feel as though she has something that is starting to hold her back from battling with all of her might, because even though she lost herself a few times, her freezing scared me, I bet it scared everyone. What could be holding her back? We really need to find out more about one another, because we truly do not know much about one another.

Yuichi, I feel really bad for him. He joined the game because he wanted to be a Beast Tamer, because he heard that a few people have done it and he wanted a creature to call his own. In real life he is a real lover of life, he loves all animals and all people the same, making it very hard for him to succeed playing this game, seeing that you have to kill stuff a lot, it makes me feel bad for the guy. He probably would not even be playing this game if it wasn't for him getting trapped in her like the rest of us and if I could I would do anything to get him home so that he doesn't have to kill anything else. It probably kills Yuichi inside, even though it is just a game, when he sees an animal, it is an animal virtual or real, at least that is what he told me.

However, me, all I can do is be monster bait...

This week, I did realize something though, Yuichi, or Angel, or Kirito, we didn't get improved at all, in a way, we are all sort of a family now, even though it has only been a few weeks, through everything that happened, out of 10000 people, we all found each other and decided to become friends, when you think about it like that, it really is like a miracle, and there is no other way to successfully put our meeting into words, because think about it, I met Yuichi when he refused to kill anything and was staying at the town of beginnings, and convinced him that I would help him get over his fear (This is another story that will be covered in a later chapter), I met Angel when she passed out from almost dying from the Timber Wolves soon after, and then some how she found Kirito, and the four of us some how became friends, the only word to describe it, Miracle.


	8. The Meeting

**_-=Chapter 7=The Meeting=-_**

'It has been around two weeks since Kirito, Hajime, Yuichi, and I had training week, which was when we spent a week training really hard to become stronger, after that, we still trained a bit, but not as vigorously, except Kirito, who was away a lot training to become stronger. We all have been training a lot in order to stabilize a team bond and be able to trust one another a little more. Kirito accepted an invitation to join the two's guild and I accepted as well, even though it took a while to earn my trust, they got it. Since we all know each other quite well now, it is nice to know that we have people we can count on, other than if we were all solo players.

It seems as though since Kirito had found out about the meeting concerning the first stage boss and defeating it, he has had something that has been bothering him quite a bit, I don't know what it is, but I feel as though the reason that he is so troubled has something to do with us. It could just be that he wants to protect us but I am not to sure. I am a bit intimidated by the fact that we need to defeat 100 bosses in order to beat the game yet it has been an entire month and we have not defeated the boss on floor one.

It is leading me to start believe that we won't be able to survive to get to the 100th floor, and it is a really terrifying thought, I remember how I have almost died twice already, and without my friends, I would already be dead. Even though I really try my hardest, no matter what I do, I just can't get strong enough, I want to be a help to everyone. I wonder if they would let me be a healer for people who get hurt during the boss fight, I could probably find some healing potions/crystals if I kill enough monsters, I have a few now, but I don't think that it would be enough.

Kirito has been spending a lot of time with me trying to teach me how to talk, I could not thank him enough, for now I can speak the basics. I felt like a child when trying to pronounce the words correctly. Although I can't describe the happiness that flows through me when I learn a new word that I can speak! I owe Kirito so much I just wish that there was some way to show him how thankful I am. You see, he spends the time after sunset to do all of the training, because after dark, even with the moonlight, it can get really hard to see in the forest, which is the place where we all train, even though we have pretty much wiped out all the boar, we went to another area last week and found more of them, so I guess they are not ALL gone.

Today, we have to go to the meeting, and I hope that none of my friends get hurt to badly by the fight, now that I am thinking about that though, could that possibly be what was bothering Kirito? Was he worried about losing one of us? They all have really started to become very dear to me and I don't know what I would do if I lost them...' a shiver went down Angel's spine at the thought of loosing one of her valued friends 'I know Hajime, and Yuichi are my friends but what should I call Kirito?, anyways, I think that it is about time to leave for the meeting, I still have not developed my language very much though, so I still have to use the messaging board a lot.'

"T-Time to go" I noticed that my voice seemed to ring throughout the inn that we were all staying at. Kirito, Hajime, and Yuichi popped their heads into the room I was staying at, I was just finishing combing my hair when they came in, I pulled on my boots and sent a message saying "_Guys, I think that it is time for all of us to head to the meeting regarding the first boss!_" I sat down on the bed for a moment then got up. "Kirito, those lessons you are having for her seem to be working," Yuichi told Kirito, surprised on how much she is learning. "Let's go guys!" I ran to the door and waited for Kirito, Yuichi, and Hajime to come along to.

I decided that I would stand between Kirito and Yuichi as we walked to the meeting, by the time us four got there, there was already around 30 players there. We all sat down on the left end of the bleachers and waited for the speaker to start talking, a few people seemed to be staring at us suspiciously, and then they reverted their attention back to the speaker as he clapped twice and started talking, Kirito told me that he would message me the details of what he said, but I got quite a few bits and pieces on my own, though it wasn't nearly enough to understand everything that he had probably said.

The Speaker said that he wanted to thank people for coming, you know, the average introduction. Then he told us his name, which is Dabiel, the next thing he said I did not understand, but people around us starting laughing, Yuichi and Hajime to, Kirito seemed to remain calm but I thought I caught him smile for a second. Kirito sent me a message saying that he claimed to be a knight, I giggled at that, but returned my attention to Diabel. Even though I couldn't understand most of what he was saying, he seemed to be very determined. Some people also starting clapping and I think a few cheered. I put my hands together a few times, but I may have over done it, because I was clapping a little longer than I should have and people started staring, oh well, I haven't heard myself clap before.

Then he said something about parties, I assumed we were already set, since we had the four of us, but then, I saw a hooded figure out of the corner of my eye. They were all alone and didn't seem to have anyone to team up with. "Kirito, they are alone" I told him, I wanted everyone to feel like part of the team, so when I asked to go and talk to them he said yes. As I started to make my way toward the shady figure, I noticed that no one else seemed to be coming, so I continued. I am not fantastic at talking yet so I figured that my best bet was to send a message explaining the situation, here is what it read.

_"Hello, I have noticed that you seem to be a Solo Player, and I think that we all need to be grouped up, so, if you would wish, I would love to have you be with my team for this one battle in order to help you out. I can understand if you do not want to, but I really think that it would be for the best if you did this. By the way, I am Angel, I will leave you with an invitation to join our party, and if you join it or not it is completely up to you."_ She took a moment to study it, then accepted it quietly. "Thank you" I said aloud, "That, is our team" I said pointing to the 3 boys below us.

Kirito was just waiting sitting patiently, thinking about something, which is something he seems to be doing a lot, he had one hand on his chin, Hajime and Yuichi seemed to have whispered something to each other. "Would you come and please join us?" I said, before turning and making my way back, they decided to have come with me, 'So their username is Asuna? That is a girls name! Could she be a girl too?' "Kirito, Yuichi, and Hajime!" the three looked at me, I wrote to them "_This is our new teammate, they will just be with us for the boss fight, unless they chooses to stay with us._" they all shook their heads in agreement, and Asuna took a seat next to us, ether no one else noticed her username under her cursor, they didn't care, or they don't know Asuna is a girls name.

Suddenly, someone screamed out "HOLD UP JUST A SECOND!" and jumped down next to Dabiel. He started talking about how some people needed to apologize to those who have died so far thanks to the game. Then Dabiel said something about him referring to the ex-beta-testers. Then this guy, apparently named Kibaou, continued with his rant, saying how they took all the easy quests, and how they are all to blame for abandoning the normal players come the start of this game. I am starting to get a bit agitated with this guys irritable attitude, I can't have him talking poorly about those who have helped more than he believes.

I decided that I would send him a message, so, his user is Kibaou is it? Now then, "_Dear Kibaou, please do not judge those who you know nothing of. ~Angel_" She debated for a moment to send it or not. Then decided to, 'I don't think that it could hurt him to much to let him know my mind...' she sent the message to him, he paused his ranting for a moment, seeing the new message, and when he read it, he yelled "So, who is this Angel?" Angel, hesitantly stood up. "My name is Angel." everyone looked at me, I got so nervous. As I was about to sit down, because I knew I could explain why Beta-testers should not be blamed later.

A dark skinned man walked down, he was very muscular and was tall as well. He started to talk about the guide books, which is something I knew about as well, I can't help but think of this Kibaou to be a thick headed character. Agil, so that is his name! The name of the guy who defended those others were jealous of, that sure is an interesting character trait, but he is just stating the truth. It is good to know that not all the people outside of my group of friends are complete looneys. I seriously need to thank the guys later for translating everything as fast as they could.

When everything was over, I stayed behind while everyone else left to go back to the inn, except the shady girl, who stayed behind, waiting for me to get done. When I initially came over there, Diabel looked at me, and he didn't seem to be to happy about the message I had sent to Kibaou, who was also still here, looking at me with a decent amount of hate in his eyes... "Gomen" I said and bowed my head, I hope what I said to him didn't impact him to much, I just don't like it when people do stuff like that, it ticks me off... Then I turned back to Diabel, who was starting to talk to someone else.

I looked at his username one last time, to make sure I would send it to the write person, then sent a message that said "_Hi, I am Angel! I would like to be the healer for the boss fight, so that if people get injured then they will have someone who can heal them, instead of fighting, I believe it would be a much better use for me, if you refuse, I will fight to the best of my abilities._" He nodded his head yes, then typed "_If you wish to help other players when they are in need, take these, and remember that the battle is tomorrow. So, you should probably go and catch up to your friends._" Diabel handed me a few healing crystals and a health potion.


	9. Illfang,A Death Threat,&Angel's Jealous?

**_-=Chapter 9=Illfang, A Death Threat, and Angel's Jealousy(Not Sure if it is Diabel or Diavel so just go with it please, bare with me)=-_**

'When we first got here for the boss fight, Diabel did another speech, and now me and the others are all going to go in to take on Illfang the Kobold Lord. As we stepped in, the stone cave turned into a beautiful stained glass that covered the walls, and at the end of the this new place, was a throne, it reminded me of a place that maybe someone who was royal would live in... If it was not for Illfang I would probably take some time just to look around, it truly is a beautiful sight, the stained glass came in many different colors and the light that seemed to fill the room, although you would never be able to understand how, reminded you of the warmth that the sun brought in, the only thing is, there was an uneasiness about this room, probably caused by the boss himself.

The boss, it was a hideous beast, he seemed to radiate this disgusting aura that almost made you want to look away, even though it would cause your death. As soon as Diabel called the attack, Asuna and Kirito seemed to work as though they were a team for their entire life, as they worked together to help bring down Illfang's minions, Kirito was using some ability that temporarily disarmed the beasts for maybe a few seconds at most, then Asuna would charge in, and attack them right in their weak spot, which seemed to be the center of their chest, it was quite intriguing to watch, and made me want to battle with them too.

Now, the boss itself, most of the parties were tackling it, and not the minions, which makes sense, the sooner you kill the boss the less you have to deal with those minion characters. They seemed to be doing really well with the beast, I wasn't seeing anyone get hit by him, and it seems as though they are handling the boss in a very tactical way, they must have had some sort of meeting where they discussed a battle plan that I did not attend, not that I would understand, I will just ask Kirito about it later on. I think even if they did Kirito did not slip out of the inn long enough to attend some meeting even if there was one.

The boss is now in the red of the fourth health bar, and it seems as though something is not quite right though, I mean, when he threw his blade he was using, he did not just throw the current one, but his Katana as well... The Guidebook was not correct in this regard and I think something might have changed since the beta test, I will have to ask Kirito about that too once this battle is over, look! Diabel is starting to run over toward him, and the boss... how is it moving so fast?! It is jetting around and the color yellow is appearing, I noticed that Kirito was trying to yell out to him, but Diabel wasn't listening, and by the time he was it seemed like it was to late.

I ran over toward him and went right in front of Diabel, sprinting as fast as I could to get there at the very last second, I took a lethal blow and went flying into a near by wall, people need Diabel way more than they need me, he was able to rally the people, and get them excited to battle. I looked over at my health bar, it was still diminishing, and after a few more seconds of consciousness, I drifted in and out of consciousness, as I watched Kirito run up to the boss, he seemed intent on killing the boss, I wonder why?... zzz

**_-=One Hour Later=-_**

I slowly opened my eyes, is Diabel and the others okay? This is the question that kept reentering my mind, when I looked around and finally noticed my surroundings, we were in the boss room, but there was no longer a boss, the room was bright, you may even say it looked lively with everyone still cheering. When I looked ahead I met Kirito's gaze and blushed, I can't control it really. Everyone stopped for a moment when they had saw that I had woken up, a few people cheered, and some others sat there grumpily, you know, people like Kibaou.

I got up and put one hand on my head "What happened after the boss battle?" I said it without even realizing it, as though I was fluent with the language, I am curious about how that happened but a bit happy as well, because now I can talk with my friends, my voice is a bit higher than I ever thought it would be, I guess I would have never found out how my voice sounded to me if it wasn't for this game, despite it being some game that can bring death to those who's health points falls to zero, it still seems to be a break through, regardless of why the game was created, it was created, and it is a genius invention, and Akihiko Kayaba really out did himself.

This kind of made me wonder about how what would happen if the genius actually had used this software for good, all that it could have done for the world, but he decided to waste all of this on some death game, really a tragedy if you ask me, if only he could have seen what it has done for me... It is so interesting to think about all that this game **_could_**have turned out to be... Anyways, I hope that some day I can make a game like this, except, hopefully it won't kill anyone... but it would be a software for people like me, people who can not hear or see in the real world will be given a chance to in this gaming world!

Hmm... I have a message alert, I should probably check it later, because a lot of people are around me right now and they could possibly read it... *People were cheering her on and she suddenly zapped back into reality* "Thank you, Angel, the name suits you, you saved my life" Diabel said happily, I responded with "You are the only one who can successfully bring all these people together, you truly are an intriguing individual!" It really is true though, think about it, people from all different walks of life have joined together to help bring down this single boss, and it was done by the leadership originally of one person, Diabel, compared to him I am just a little shrew...

" If I was in your shoes Diabel, I would have probably been to shy to do anything, despite the situation being calm and everyone supporting you" I was still thinking out loud. 'What would have happened if Diabel was the one who took the blow?' this is another question that kept my churning in my head, suddenly a stabbing pain hit me like a sack of bricks, it was more like a mental anguish.I have never understood Jealousy, except in a rare few occasions, and all the people I was jealous of? They were normal high school students, they got to live life carefree, with families and friends that were normal, but me, I never got to do that, because of my stupid memory and my dad who pushed me to do better before he passed away, which made me determined to make him as proud as I could.

I may have just realized something today, I may be some smart deaf girl, with family ties to fame and fortune, but in all reality, all I have ever wanted to do in life was just to be a normal teenager... It was just because I never got the chance to figure that out myself because I was too busy working as hard as I could, so I always was on the verge of passing out, not much time there for thinking about what I wanted, because I was **way** to busy trying to accomplish what my dad had worked so hard for, normal teenagers take advantage of their gifts, and have a tendency not to see what is right in front of them.

(I am a teen and I know this from experience, it sucks, I tend not to cherish life's greatest gifts till they are gone...)

Well, I guess that the days of just having worry free fun are just beginning, the only reason I would call them fun is because I really didn't have to worry about some business I was doomed to take control of. Even though I have a lot to think about on my hands, like what is going to happen to the business if I die, and also, what if this all turns out to be some joke that Akihiko came up with. But really, what is on my mind is, that I need to see if I can figure out my feelings, I still don't know how I feel about Kirito in certain regards, and even though I know Hajime, and Yuichi are friends, what about Asuna? I can't believe I am thinking this way, even though it could all be true, and I do not care how selfish it is to think this way. I love **everyone** here because they all gave me this ability I never had in the real world, they let me relax, have fun, **enjoy myself**. I owe them all so much, and I didn't even see it before now, because I was thinking to much to see everything that I have ever wanted is right in front of me! Sometimes I can be so arrogant, but that is okay, because if I wasn't I would not be teenager...

I hope Kirito, Yuichi, and Hajime all know how much they mean to me, and if they do not, then I will not hesitate to tell it to them, because it would all be true. They all mean the world to me, this world to me, I would probably not even **_be_ **here if it wasn't for Kirito spending all day on **_Launch Day _**to teach me how to fight, and I also wouldn't be here if Yuichi and Hajime hadn't saved me from those Timber Wolves, it is all so unbelievable how lucky I really am to have them, I just hope they all realize they are part of this team, and I will always be their for them, no matter what happens, or what the cost is!

_-=**Three Hours Later**=-_

We are starting to walk around, Kirito thinks he knows where the inn is, but there is no map out yet since we had just concurred the boss on floor one, so it will surely take a while to find everything, but I will try to build a mental map of everything as we walk along, and I can only hope that it will help us later on... We turned a corner and the inn was the third house on the left of the intersection of walkways, 'Here it is!' I thought to myself happily. We all walked in and paid for separate rooms, I feel as though soon this whole floor will be booming with life come the news of the triumph that had happened today, but for now, there is only a few people and the AI's, such as the one that runs this vary inn.

I know that a lot of things have happened today, but I am glad about one thing, I was finally able to realize that I have had my biggest dream come true in such a dreary way, it just makes me happy though, regardless of why, or how. The guys, even though I thought they purchased separate rooms, seems to have all went into Kirito's room, and probably against Kirito's liking as well. Seeing as I could only hear Hajime and Yuichi laughing their hearts out at something. I would probably be lucky to hear Kirito to laugh in any situation, he is really a serious person, but he can be a fool, do not get me wrong.

Oh yeah! The message I had gotten, the MB is still flaring off, I had just forgotten it with all the celebration that was going on earlier today, ever since the boss battle everything has seemed to be so surreal, I am glad to be here, though I am not sure just how I survived yet, I did. Now then for that message I had received... I clicked on it and here is what the following message said:

"_You will die come the end of this game, there will be no more escape roots ~HeathCliff_" 3... 2... 1... what?...


	10. Death Threat Continued

"_You will die come the end of this game, there will be no more escape roots ~HeathCliff_" (3...2..1..) 'What? Have I read this correctly? Who is HeathCliff, and why would he want me dead... I guess he could be a she but that is besides the point... I just don't understand the meaning of this I guess, the note clearly states that I will die, but why at the end of the game? What sort of escape roots did I take, I didn't know I had taken any sort of escape root... I wonder what that could possibly be about...

Should I tell my friends about this threat of death? Should I leave it to myself? I DON'T KNOW WHAT TO DO! I don't want to worry any of my friends with my problems, but how would they react if I had died? Why can I now understand and communicate easily using language? Before, even after Kirito taught me, I knew only the basics, and that was why it took a lot for me to understand just a little bit about Diabel's speech... I wonder what Kirito thinks about this whole entire situation... Well, about the language thing, not the other stuff...' these questions kept swirling in my head as I thought about what I had just witnessed...

How should I take this entire situation... What should I do about my friends, I am not sure if they would care about my death but knowing that there is a death threat out there for me it may mean that someone is going to go after our entire team... Kirito, he has great combat skills, and he is one of the strongest people in the game, this could cause jealousy, and just maybe a death threat to be put on his plate as well, and what if he reacts like I am? Then what would he do in this situation, he would probably keep it to himself too, just to protect us...

Then again, I am nothing like Kirito, I am only good at fighting because of my memory in seeing way to do things... WHAT SHOULD I DO?!' as these thoughts kept circling in my brain Kirito walked into theroom, obviously through with everything that was going on with Hajime, and Yuichi, I just noticed that he has a new black cloak on... It looks really neat, and suits Kirito quite well... He sat down beside me though, and I probably looked like I barely noticed him, which is the case... to many thoughts to think about... what should I do?!

I turned to look over at where I put my sword, because I was to lazy to actually put it away, and I didn't want it strapped on my back when I went to sleep... And when I looked over there, I met Kirito's gaze, he was a few inches from my own face but he was checking out what was written on my message board... It is to late to try and explain it away now, I could tell he has already read it because he had one hand on his chin in deep thought, I wonder why he does that though, it is pretty adorable. I shook my head trying to get that idiotic thought that had nothing to do with the situation out of my head, and started thinking again, until Kirito said started talking, he seemed way calmer about the situation than I was.

"You should be alright..." Kirito said, he was still thinking though, "You have me, Hajime, and Yuichi to protect you in any situation..." he started blushing, "Anyways, I don't think that he could get close to you without having to go through us. I haven't met anyone by the username of HeathCliff" he said, now that I think about it, it is true, I have the best friends I could ever ask for and they all will look out for me, just like if any of them were in this situation, if I had found out I would protect every single one of them, even if it would cause me to die, just like Diabel... Even though he was someone that I did not know very well, this is still a situation in which I am thinking about, because I have not figured out how I survived just yet.

For now, I think I should just let my worries go and just tell everyone what the message said, because I know that they will be out there to protect me. "Kirito," I said, I want to settle something, because ever since I brought it up with what would have happened if I had died... it has been bothering me. He looked up at me, he seemed to be a bit over the situation, just like me, I looked at him, we were quite close to each other and us being so close caused both of us to blush. "What would have you done if I had died back at the boss battle?" I asked.

He looked at me like I was stupid, which is a feeling that now seemed to overwhelm me, because I felt as though I should not have asked such an irresponsible question, he looked like he was a bit angry at me now. "Don't talk like that" his voice seemed to be chocked just a tiny bit, was he going to cry? "Don't ever do something like that again, we all need you, we are a team now, and we need all our players." He was now holding a really bright blush, but I am not sure if it was out of embarrassment from what he just said, or if it was from him just trying to keep back any tears that would form.

Just knowing that he cared made me settle down a bit, and knowing that we are part of a team, made me happy, I don't care how stupid I seemed when I had found out about it, but I was so happy, I am no longer alone, no matter what anyone tells me, I will always have Kirito, Yuichi, and Hajime, my friends! I hugged Kirito, half out of trying to cheer him up, because he seemed sad, and half because I just felt like hugging him, I wanted to protect him, even if it was from his own thoughts, I just wanted to protect him.

God, I must sound so stupid right now, thinking things like this, when really, if anything, he was the one protecting me, he was protecting me just like I want to protect him, he was protecting me from my own thoughts, I finally let go from him. He clearly was now blushing of embarrassment, but it is better than when I was unsure, I heard him say something, but it was to quiet for me to hear. He seemed a bit nervous now and was looking in maybe just a little bit of a better move "I promise that I won't try something like that, as long as you guys are not in danger, if you are, I will not hesitate to do what I did in the boss room, so you guys better watch yourselves!" I said, I kind of relaxed now, because I was in kind of a happy mood.

Today, is probably one of the best days of my life, and probably one of the scariest too. Reasons why? Kirito said that he doesn't want me to ever do something like saving someone else by almost sacrificing my own life, yet, I almost died. Also, I have a death threat sent in my name, but my mind was soothed by finding out that everyone close to me will watch out for me, so I don't care how stupid, or how selfish I sound, I am happy, and today is the best day of my life, and the scariest day of my life.


	11. Yuichi's Thoughts

_**Author's Note= Reread the guidelines, and found out that these are allowed, anyways, I am sorry guys, I was gone at Band Camp, I am going to be a freshman this year and it was my first year going, so I sort of forgot what day it was, since it was my first year going. I was not able to post an author not explaining myself, I am so sorry that I had not been around and had not posted a new chapter in almost a week. I hope all you dedicated readers know you are appreciated, and thank you for reading this. Band Camp made up for 5 of the days I posted nothing, and around 2 days because I was having a writers block on what to do next.**_

_**I hope that you guys can forgive me, and I will try to post chapters at least daily from now on, oh, and one of our many cats jumped on my laptop and broke a key off, so another problem I have been having, also, there may be another time I will not post anything because I am going to be auditioning for American Idol, and if I fail I will post something, thank you all, baiiii.**_

**_-=Three Months From The Previous Chapter=-_ (Yuichi's point of view)**

It has been around 3 months since Angel had gotten that death threat, and since we defeated the first boss, now we are living on floor 8, it took all of our combined Col to buy a house here. Angel, and Kirito are still the strongest people on the team, I am a few levels off of them and Hajime is around 5 levels behind, I feel bad for him, *Yuichi glanced at Hajime, Hajime was laying on the couch, relaxing after the training they did today* he must feel like he is not as good as us, he does not seem to see his own abilities.

I think that we have all come closer though, for Angel and Kirito it seems like they have developed a unique relationship different than us, but I guess it makes sense since Kirito taught her how to fight, and since she took a hit for him on floor 5, and probably saved him, seeing as he was on red and she was doing what she usually does, healing people, so she had full health. Angel, really is something, instead of battling, she decides that she is going to heal everyone who gets injured, I feel as though it is something that I would have given to Hajime, to make him feel more of use, she has saved quite a few lives over the months, it was a genuine surprise to see her chose healing people with potions and crystals over fighting, seeing as she looks like she enjoys battling foes.

I haven't seen anything even close to when Angel really gets challenged in a fight, she goes almost crazy, and fights as though her animal instincts had kicked in, but I really know nothing about this, it might just be the mechanics of the game. However, throughout the months I have seen her do it only a few times, and it was always when Kirito, Hajime, me or herself are in a lot of trouble, I feel like she uses it to protect us, but I worry about her, because I don't know what would happen if she was to duel someone, I have **never,** _**ever**_ seen her duel before, and probably for good reason, I think she is afraid to duel, because she has been challenged before.

But for now, today, we are all going to walk around and explore this floor a lot better, seeing as we do not know everything that is here and there might be a better spot to fight monsters than the place we have been using at the moment, oh yeah, and I just remembered, Angel, has not lost the ability to suddenly understand when people speak, it confused all of us when it first happened, but after Kirito and Angel sat down, with me and Hajime sitting and watching everything they talked about, the two are geniuses I swear, I felt so dumb not being able to understand half of what they said, they were talking about the game and how it could modify neurons and stuff like that.

After like 5 hours of the two babbling about various reasons of how, they broke it down for me and Hajime, they said "_Since the game can give you the feeling of presence, it makes it to where you feel like you are actually there. Since Angel hit a button on the Nerve Gear me and Angel think that it sent a special signal, we are not quite sure as to why it happened, but it seems that someone had modified the system to give her the ability to speak, we may find out why later, but we have figured out when as well. The first time Angel could understand speech was when she was knocked out by the boss on floor one, there may have been some sort of program added to the system that allowed all those who are deaf in the real world give them the ability to understand speech, since they would not naturally understand it._"

Even after they broke it down I still could not understand the how, I mean, how does someone all of a sudden get the ability to speak and understand speech? Especially when they are _deaf _in the real world. I guess we will find out soon enough, but I hope that it doesn't have anything to do with Angel specifically, we all need her in our team, I feel like some feel that stronger than others. I wonder, right now, what everyone is thinking about, because the room has remained silent this entire time, and it is right about time to leave. "Everyone, I think it is time for our departure" Angel said, quietly, she ran into a bathroom and changed, this is the first time she has gotten new gear since the start of the game, I guess that her previous outfit was about to dissolve.

When she came out, I was surprised by her new choice of clothing, this time, the clothing was still white, but for some reason it reminded me of Kirito's style of clothing, She was wearing a cloak, it had golden laces that tied together at the waist, but wrapped their way around her so that it looked as though the lace was sort of keeping the cloak in place. Her boots, they had a golden trim on the top of them, and you could barely see the golden trim due to the fact that the cloak had almost completely covered the tops of her boots, the heels of the boots were also golden, along with where her toes are. Under the cloak she had a white shirt, there did not seem to be anything special about it, other than how it seemed to sparkle. Her hair was held up in a Golden Bow this time, it reached to her ankles, while her hair had reached her back. When she turned around I was surprised to see that there was a sword shape on her back, it was a black sword that had words along the sides that read "_The Swordsmen_".

'SO IT IS A GUILD OUTFIT!' I screamed in my head, I wonder if she used all the money she had from training the past few days, since the rest of our money was spent on the house we are currently staying at. "I like the guild outfit!" Hajime said happily, "I think it is great, how did you get it made?" I asked curiously. "I needed new gear, so I decided to get my clothing tailored, and spent everything from training, and also sold a lot of monster drops I did not need." she said, she sounded half proud, half calm. I really hope that I can get one as well, except I have never been a fan of cloaks, but Kirito and Angel seem to have been born to wear them, I could never pull of a look like that, so I am going to go with a cape instead, it sounds weird I know. Usually superheroes like superman wear capes but I am not a hero.

Anyways, "It is time to go guys, we want to get back before sun down" Hajime said happily, you know, I think I have always been the quiet one on the team, and it is mostly because I never want to make a mistake and make my friends hate me, but it seems like everyone else never worries about things like this. I really hope that we all get closer as friends, and in the future we will all be close enough so that I would never have to worry about losing them, except, this game is a game based on death, so losing any of them would be so easy... It terrifies me to think about it, I hope that in the future we will all remain a close team of friends, and this brings up a lot of questions, but I will have to dwell on them later, for everyone else was waiting for me join them at the door leading out of the house.

As I joined them, slowly, everyone started to open a conversation and we all left, the 8th floor is really buzzing because it is the only floor so far that has a tailor, the tailor is a girl that isn't an NPC, but never leaves her home here, she seems to always be open, or at least that is what everyone is saying, I personally have never seen her, I have also heard that she is beautiful, sky blue eyes and brown hair, but I personally don't really care about that stuff, I can not wait till we get enough money to buy guild outfits for everyone other than Angel, who already has one. I doubt Kirito will be up for changing his look though, seeing as he has not taken of his "Cloak of Midnight" since he had received it on the first floor, everything he has, including his sword, he has gotten from drops, it is intriguing to think about how much time it took to get some of the gear.

I suddenly had been zapped to reality when we entered a swamp that we had not seen yet, it was dark and dreary, it gave a horrible feeling, I want to dispel of it as soon as I can. Then, Angel shot back and hit a tree, an arrow was in her arm, and was pinning her preventing her from moving, it gave her a paralysis effect, what just happened?!


	12. Ambushed! Death Markers!

**_-=Chapter 12= The Ambush, A Mark of Death!=-_**

The sound of an arrow whizzed by, and suddenly shot me out of my thoughts, Angel suddenly flew back, and hit a tree, being held in place by an arrow in her arm. The arrow seemed to have given her some sort of a paralysis effect seeing as she could not move, I ran towards her, only to have an arrow shot at me as well, I narrowly dodged the projectile as another one was shot at me, I quickly pulled Angel from the tree, the arrow was ripped from her arm in the process, I quickly ran away from the scene trying to protect her, Kirito, and Hajime, they can handle themselves, and I will be back after Angel's better, it shouldn't take long.

I looked at her, she could not move, it seems like she would even have trouble talking, she was surprisingly light for being such a strong fighter, she and Kirito could probably run the front lines right now if they had wanted to. I drifted through the forest, carefully scraping certain areas so I would know how to get back to my friends, after thinking I had lost them, I had settled down near a cave, and put Angel down, then laid beside her, waiting for the paralysis to cease so that we could join the others in the fight against the mysterious arrows.

It seems as though through everything I was telling her, she seemed to be listening, but fell asleep on the way. I think that the arrows didn't just cause paralysis, but I can't be sure, abilities can cause effects that you can not see. I hope that she gets better soon, I think me talking on the way to this cave was the most talking I had done with anyone in such a long time, but I guess knowing that the one you are talking to can't argue at you makes it a lot easier to talk, I hope that she didn't mind me rambling on, or that I did not bore her to the point that she fell asleep.

**_-=Kirito's Point of View=-_**

'Where the hell are all of these arrows coming from?!' I thought to myself, if one of them hits me or Hajime, we are both dead. Suddenly, several figures started to step out of the forest lining, 'It couldn't be?!' I thought to myself, rumors had started to spread of the formation of a murder guild, named, Death Markers, they would leave a sign that they were there, such as a small article of clothing, or an item that the one who was killed was known for wearing, they are strictly for hire, they get paid to murder people, but why would they be hear, and what would they possibly want with us? A delusional chuckle started to echo throughout the large forest, it made the trees look as though they were shivering.

I quickly shot around, and was 6 inches from the leader of this murder guild, it was a girl, she had black hair, and her eyes, were an ice cold blue, they seemed to pierce through your very souls, and having their gaze on me gave me a very uneasy feeling. "Do you know where the girl and the boy went?" she asked coldly, then pointed to two of the men that surrounded us "You two, our job is to kill that white haired girl, go find her would you?" she said, her orders sent shivers down my spine, she wants to... KILL ANGEL?! There is no way, is this what that death threat was warning us about? That this guild would come after us, or did this person who sent the death threat also plan this, to kill Angel, but WHY?!

The girl suddenly stared back at me "You know, since my job is not to kill you, I may just let you live, but if you do anything to get in our way, both of you will pay your lives" she said, and a small chuckle excaped her lips, this time, it didn't just send a shiver down my spine, but made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up, what can we possibly do? We are surrounded, and there is no realistic way to get out of this, but if we don't try, Angel will... NO, we can't let something like that happen, we must try, no matter what.

I turned around, and started to annualize my surroundings, there is a total of seven foes, two are archers, the ones who originally paralyzed Angel before Yuichi saved her, then their was four men who surrounded us, two had their hands on their swords, ready to strike at us at any moment if we made the slightest hesitation to do their bidding, and the other two, who seemed just to be watching everything that was happening, amused, lastly, their was the leader, the girl who's chuckle made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up, and she just smiled at me, not your average smile, no way, it was an evil grin, I couldn't help but let my teeth chatter at the mere glance at such coldness.

I think I have an idea, if we are able to jump over the footmen, and get to the archers, I could disarm one of them, and take the bow and harrows from them, then use them to paralyze everyone but Hajime, thus allowing us to make a hasty escape, but what about the two men looking for Angel and Yuichi? I suppose that by the time we find them Angel's paralysis effect will be gone, but if all of them are equip with any ability similar to one such as those arrows, we will truly stand no chance. There is truly no chance, for if I can't protect Angel now, then I never had the right to call her my friend, so I have to do this, not only for Angel, but Yuichi too.

I took one deep breath in, starting to concentrate on the archer that was directly in front of me, and quickly pulled out my sword, which the guild members had not been smart enough to disarm me before putting me into a sort of captivity, which will turn out to be their key mistake, however, they will probably learn from this in the future. The two men quickly drew their swords, ready to kill, one charged immediately, and the other one had stalled for a moment, before running toward me, I waited for both of them to be just feet away from me, before jumping as high as I can in this virtual reality, the men collided with one another, which seemed to be what the second one was trying to avoid.

"Hey, they are escaping!" yelled one of the men who was previously being humored by mine and Hajime's presence. The other man, who was witnessing the previous display of power from Kirito, quickly grabbed the knife they had attached to his side, and took it out, then also charged at Kirito, this time, Kirito had cut the swordsmen's arm, and grabbed Hajime and dashed towards the archer that had been his original target in the beginning, Kirito looked at his hot bar for a moment, he had a message, he would have to go and check it later, because right now it doesn't matter, currently his health is still in green, but it seems like the last man had a dagger that gave a slow poison effect, and Kirito had gotten a small cut on his arm.

Kirito and Hajime were suddenly surrounded, and Kirito personally didn't know how, because two were knocked out by running into one another, the other had a painful cut across the arm, and he forgot about the one yelling about their escape, oh no, they were surrounded, Kirito suddenly through Hajime into a tree, to the best of his abilities, because Hajime barely hit the lowest branch, but Kirito felt that if he was to get killed, Hajime shouldn't go down with him. "What kind of stunt was that?" the feminine voice rung out, it was the one he had heard previously, "I told you that I will kill you if you get in our way, yet you still purposely get in our way, why, what is the point in you dying? Is it that you want to die? Are you trying to save your friends? She and that boy are probably already gone, because my men have probably killed them both by now" the men surrounding me had made a small hole in the line, so that the boss of them could get threw.

"You, kill Yuichi and Angel?! That is almost humorous" Hajime's voice echoed throughout the entire forest, his voiced seemed to be booming with anger, he suddenly jumped from the tree, with a single thought seeming to be going through his head "Not Today!" he took out his sword and landed making a huge noise and causing dust to stir all around him, when the dust cleared, Hajime was sitting quietly, sweating, the girl was gone... what happened to her? You don't mean... Suddenly the chat bars of all the men that were surrounding me filled with a message, I barely had time to read it before most of the men exited out of it "_Your leader has died due to the hands of another player, that players name is Hajime, this player that has successfully brought down your leader now has control of this guild, if they refuse leadership, this guild will be disbanded, thank you."_

'Did Hajime, **kill **her?' the thought that came I quickly dicided was the only resolution to what had just happened.

**_-=Hajime's Point of View, Flashback, Three Minutes=-_**

I can't just wait here in this tree Kirito threw me in, I am no frightened cat! Then the words from the boss hit Hajime hard, "I told you that I would kill you, yet you still purposely get in our way, why, what is the point in you dying? Is it that you want to die? Are you trying to save your friends?" the next words she spoke was like a punch right in the gut, "She and that boy are probably already gone, because my men have probably killed them both by now"... 'I may be the weakest on the team, but... but, I can not let her say that she has had my friends slaughtered like it was no big deal!

"You, kill Yuichi and Angel?! That is almost humorous" my voice was louder than I intended it to be, and I jumped down at her, and drew my sword, my intent is to scare her away, if she runs away Kirito and I can go look for Angel and Yuichi, I want to be of use this time, not like all those times before when my friends had to dirty their hands for me, this time, this time will be different! As I hit the ground I felt my sword go through something, I wasn't quite sure of what until some of the fog had cleared around me, and the leader of this murder guild had disappeared... I felt myself lose all of my strength, I killed someone?!

I turned around, and looked at Kirito "Kirito, check my marker thing above my head, is it red?" I muttered, it was then that all of the newly I think leaderless men turned to me, are they mad because I had killed their leader? If so, what are they going to do to me? A life for a life? Suddenly, one of them asked "What do we do now, leader?" erm... What!? I think they were able to tell I was drawing a question mark so one of them went further "The only reason I was ever in a Pk guild was because I was told there is no proof that people who died in game died in real life, so I figured that they would be zapped to reality if so, so there would be no worries, but now that I see you guys, I have realized something. Taking someone else's life and putting it at risk is not something I should be doing, regardless of what happens after their HP hits zero."

I suddenly got a message, _"Someone has left your guild"_ what?! I am in the Swordsmen, no one would have left, then I looked at the username "Kurume184" No one in our guild was named that, there was only four of us, another person started to talk "This kind of stuff happens a lot, the leader dies, if someone killed them the killer gets the guild, usually, the one who killed the leader takes control, but it doesn't look like you were to keen on this guild in the first place, seeing as there are orders to kill your friends being set out by this guild, I am leaving too" A lot of people started murmuring, and I looked at my guild status, Leader of Guild Death Markers, there was three buttons following the message, Disband guild, give leadership, make new guild.

I clicked disband guild, seeing as the message "_Someone has left your guild" _had started to look as though it was being spammed as everyone left, when I clicked it I saw a message pop up asking, "Are you sure?" I said yes and thus the guild was gone, "Okay, now that the guild is gone, will you guys still kill us?" I asked, "No point" said one of the men as a response. We need to look for Angel & Yuichi! If what that girl had said was true, then they could already be dead by now, I suddenly heard a rustling from behind me and zipped around, Yuichi jumped out before passing out on the ground, he had Angel in his arms, and the two men the previous leader had dispatched to kill them was quickly on their tails.

"We need to complete our leaders final wish" I heard one of them say, as the two of them approached us, one had cut mine and Kirito's arms before we could do anything, and suddenly nether of us had the ability to move, I looked at my health bar, Kirito's was in yellow, he had poison and paralysis! I was paralyzed, that man quickly joined the other, and both of them put their knifes against Yuichi and Angel's throats. Suddenly, a figure jumped out of the trees, and ran to the men, within seconds of reaching them, both of the men were dead, "Boy, I hate unfair fights" the figure said.

**Author's Note: Who is this mystery character who saved Yuichi and Angel's lives?! What will the guild do once Yuichi and Angel learns of Hajime murdering someone? Will they kick Hajime out, or do something even more drastic? Find out, Next Chapter.**

_**_-=Chapter 14= Guild's United=-_ Preview**_

_**"What should I do?! I killed someone, how can I tell my friends?" (Hajime's thoughts) "urgh, what happened?!" (Yuichi's thoughts) "What just happened, wait, who is that?" (Angel's Thoughts) "How are we supposed to tell Yuichi and Angel what Hajime did, wait, is THAT?! (Kirito's Thoughts)**_

_**Kirito: Can I tell them who it is at least? **_

_**AnimaniacComin'AtYa: No you will ruin the surprise!**_

_**Yuichi: Yes, the whole point of her ending the chapter where she did was to add suspense as to who it was that saved all of us.**_

_**Angel: I have to agree with Yuichi and **__**AnimaniacComin'AtYa**_, I think that we should keep it a secret between us, at least until the next chapter, please...

_***Kirito Blushes***_

_**Kirito: Fine, if you guys say so I guess I won't tell anyone that the person that saved us is %&$*(#**_

_****__**AnimaniacComin'AtYa: You are lucky I can block out what you say before I upload it!**_

_****__**Kirito: You can? Fine, I can say their name all I want then, %&$*(# %&$*(# %&$*(#**_** %&$*(#!**

_****__****__**AnimaniacComin'AtYa**_: STOP IT GOSH!

_***Angel Grabs Kirito's Hand* Leave Animaniac Alone! *Angel Frowns, then smiles again* Why don't we go to the pond that we went to on floor one?! **_

_***Kirito blushes, an image of her wearing her bathing suit flashing through his thoughts, he gulped nervously* Fine...**_

_***The two leave, leaving Yuichi and **__****__**AnimaniacComin'AtYa**_ alone*

_**AnimaniacComin'AtYa: Where did Hajime Go? Well, I guess he will be back by the next chapter, Yuichi, what do you want to do?**_

_***Yuichi points towards a tree***_

_**Yuichi: Can I sit down over there?**_

_****__****__**AnimaniacComin'AtYa**_: You don't have to ask to sit down *Giggles* Anyways, I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter, the next chapter will come out tomorrow, baiii, oh, btw, I decided not to have them ambushed by the Laughing Coffins because they will play a role in this fanfiction later, *Smiles an evil grin*

_**Yuichi: What was that?**_

_****__****__**AnimaniacComin'AtYa**_: Oh, it was nothing that involves you *Pats Yuichi's head, then disappears*


	13. Asuna Makes Her Reappearance!

_**_-=Chapter 13: Asuna Makes A Reappearance=-_**_

The figure turned around and stood looking at us for a moment, I was probably the only one that remembered her, you see, I have kept from everyone else that I actually had talked to Asuna the night before the boss battle VIA messaging, she said that she was thankful for what we had done for her, and later, during the first boss fight, I think I saw Asuna, her cloak with a hood disappeared and it showed her full outfit, she was actually really pretty, which was probably the main reason that she would were a hoodie like that. I have to admit, even I think that she is pretty, and I am a girl, so yeah. I wonder why she wouldn't join our guild though, she seemed a bit hesitant and didn't answer the question when I asked back at floor 1, yet now, she saved our lives, an almost complete stranger.

Not only that, but she also was willing to _Kill_ to protect us. I think that we owe her more than just a simple thank you, I ran over and tapped her shoulder, "Asuna" she looked at me, surprised that I remembered her, but I guess she doesn't know about my photographic memory, which, is turning into a curse, I am going to have to remember everything that just happened today... Not only the ambush, but me getting pinned to a tree, and then Yuichi grabbing me and resting in a cave, I don't think anyone else actually knows the story, but since my memory allows me to pretty much replay the moment, I guess I could go back to it for a moment, I owe Yuichi my life as well, I could not move at all for the longest time.

_**_-=Flashback, beginning of ambush, approximately 1 hour=-_**_

I looked around, I have to make sure that monsters don't sneak up in front of us, because if we got surrounded, we would probably be completely screwed, besides that, I have been having these weird things happening, like, if I dream of a bird, I find a single feather on my bed... it has been creeping me out quite a bit, but I don't think that it will cause any harm, _***Whip***_... what just happened, I looked at my arm where a slight stinging pain was coming from... I can't move though! I strained just to tilt my head enough to see a dagger embedded deep in my arm holding me in place, I for some reason felt the urge to sleep, even though it was paralysis... I suddenly felt someone grab me, for a second I felt an urge to kick the person holding me till I realized it was Yuichi, he was running out of the place with me!

However, why, why did he leave behind our two friends, who threw the blade that is now in my arm, I struggled to look back at my arm, the arrow was gone now, but the pain was till there, it was kind of like a stinging sensation, I thought that things were not supposed to hurt in this game, I guess all those rules were altered come the real launch of the game though, Yuichi glanced at me, a blush was on his face, but I don't know why, well I guess holding a girl in your arms while running would probably ether tire you out or embarrass you, especially since I can't do anything... "Angel, I know Kirito and Hajime can handle themselves, especially Kirito. But we can not risk your life having you there, you can't move at all, so there would be no point in you staying. You could get killed, there was people who was emerging from the bush that the arrow that shot you came from, they were trying to ambush us, and it seems to have been to kill ether you or Kirito. You two are both well known, because Kirito killed the first boss, getting his cloak of midnight, and you, were able to withstand a head on blow that would have killed Diabel. Plus, the odds are that they were after you because of the death threat you received."

"You know, I think that the reason you can now talk and understand language may be the cause of the death threat being sent, but everyone else has that advantage, so in all honesty it doesn't make sense why they would want you or Kirito dead. To the point of hiring a murder guild, based on the amount of people there, and what was banded on all of their wrists, it seems as though they were all aiming on just you. I think they know how strong you and Kirito are so they didn't want to take any risks loosing any men." he kept rambling on but I seemed to have fell asleep at some point and when I woke up, he had set me down in a cave, the inside of it was really mucky, and reminded me of a real life cave, but it just had this little off feeling about it, I think that I should be fine though, Yuichi is here after all.

I kept struggling, I was trying to say something, I still have the paralysis effect, who ever shot that arrow is very skilled, even though the single arrow only took away the tiniest sliver of health, rendering you unable to move and drowsy is a very, very strong ability. That one person alone probably could have killed me, if what Yuichi said was true, then it seemed to be a bit of over kill for a weak girl like me, I am going to have to work stronger, so that I can become strong enough to call myself an ally to everyone here, I don't want to have to depend on everyone, I need to thank Yuichi though, no matter what, even if it kills me, I have to say thank you.

"Y-y-y-yu-yuichi..." I was struggling to say it, he looked at my surprised, probably more surprised I said his name, it was something that I never do, I usually address everyone by their usernames, than he was that I was awake. "T-t-t-tha-thank y-yo-you back th-there" I said, it is much harder talking like this than you could ever imagine, trying to talk while paralyzed... the only analogy I can think of is that right after you get out of the dentists office, and everything is numb from the work he did on your teeth, and the shots he had administered, and so all of the words you say are all slurred and hard to pronounce. That is the only thing I can think of, even though it is around 10 times harder than that to pronounce words and speak. Yuichi looked at me for a moment longer, before looking into the sunlight, he seemed to be actually a bit happy, I looked back at my health bar, looks like through all that rambling my paralysis is gone, but I want to see what Yuichi has to say. "You know, that is the first time I have ever heard you say thank you. You should have saved it for someone who deserved it more than me." I looked at him shocked, he is so modest, I mean, he just saved my life hear.

I bonked him on the head, the texture of his hair was much silkier than I thought it would be, "Baka" was all I said before sitting next to him and looking at the view ahead of us, no one was more worthy than he was... god, he is seriously almost stupid, hence why from now on that will be his nickname, I looked at him, he was smiling... what a fool... I looked at him for a moment longer, after glancing at the meadow ahead of us, I wonder how he found a place like this? When I looked back at him, the smile he had was completely gone, my eyes quickly followed his and looked there, two men were running toward us, I quickly placed a single hand on my blade, before Yuichi placed a hand on his sword as well, as the men got closer one stopped... he pushed of a cloak that he was holding, that was hiding a bunch of throwing daggers, before running at both of us.

The men started trying to hit us while Yuichi quickly mumbled a shaky plan that I quickly agreed to as both of us ran out with our swords drawn ready to fight, the plan? To try and get them to throw their daggers at us, which was successful, we both waited till the men through around 10 daggers in total and started picking them up, I put them in the hoodie of my outfit, which usually remained hidden, because I never used it. Then quickly darted at them, they continued to throw the daggers at us and eventually I ran up and got close enough, then I grabbed a dagger, and waited for my power up to reach full charge and threw it, it barely missed the guy, probably because I was trying to back up Yuichi as well, who was currently picking up the daggers in the back ground.

As I kept attempting to dodge the daggers, and kept running towards one of the men, it kept becoming a closer and closer call, because I wanted to get really close before shooting another dagger at them, this time, when I waited for the power up, it hit one of the man head on, but it seems that it won't work for long because without the boosted ability they have that I don't, the paralysis will only last for a short amount of time. Then I went and used another dagger and ended up trying to pin point an exact spot to hit them, but failed, and the other hit man hit me spot on with one of his remaining daggers, it was then we went on to plan B. Before Yuichi could get close enough, I heard the man mumble something that sent huge chills down my spine. "I will finally get to be more than just a pawn after I kill this girl". Why is my death so important to these guys?

Yuichi suddenly grabbed me and to my surprise with one hand was able to hit the other hit men because of the close range, has he tried something like this before? Anyways, that is besides the point, after that he booked it with me in his arms and headed back to were we were before, or more likely, he was just trying to get away from the dangers that laid here. As he sped me through on the way back, I quickly started to recognize the scenery, it seems that I was only asleep for a short time, or that the time it took for us to get to the place was very short, after the time I had passed out, before I knew it we were almost back to the place that we were at in the beginning.

Suddenly, Yuichi tripped, and both of us broke through the bushes to find us both paralyzed! It seems that maybe Yuichi had a knife launched at him that hit him, because now he was just as helpless to me. The men said something, but before I could try to do anything I had completely froze, it wasn't the paralysis, I suddenly fell myself unable to do anything, this is just like what happened a few months ago, I completely froze and couldn't move for the life of me, what is this, is it some sort of effect? I looked over at Kirito and Hajime, who were now paralyzed along with us, the two men were saying something but suddenly a figure broke the shadows and killed both of them, in one foul swoop! Our hero, was another matter however...

I looked around, and saw the girl that I had saw back at floor one, Asuna, she stood there, I thought that she would be mad at us for being so stupid. She just looked and smiled, "I am glad you are all going to be okay" She said happily, "because Kirito, and Angel, you two better join Front Lines soon" I still had my hand on her shoulder, I finally got the guts to say it "Thank you Asuna, we all owe you our lives" she looked at us for a moment longer before deciding to join us. As we all had set down and began to relax everything that just happened struck me a bit down. I was a bit surprised of everything that happened though.

Asuna had finally come back after all this time, I really did want to get to know more about her. What really has depressed me a bit though is thinking about how, or what happened between Hajime, Kirito, and the murder guild that had them give up on us. I noticed that Hajime hasn't said a single word in a while and it is really bothering me, because he is one of the most talkative people on the team it is really bother some to think about everything that could happen with this. I hope that he can get over what ever he is bothering, because I never want to see that look he has again... He has his eyes hid in his hair, strangely something similar to what Kirito does, but the aura he was admitting creeped me out.

As we talked with Asuna she had started to talk about everything that was going on and what guild she joined etc., as she spoke I was excited to get to know more about her. She said "The guild that I had decided to join is the Blue Moon, our guild is mostly a guild of players who had a higher level than most other players, and it was people motivated to beat the game as quickly as possible. We spend most of our time training to get stronger, but strangely, today I felt something was off and ended up finding you guys surrounded by a murder guild, then I remembered you from floor one." As she talked I got the feeling she was more scared than we were during that fight. Maybe it was just me though... Hehe... Anyways, now then, to the pain I was supposedly feeling when I got shot with an arrow... I know that pain wasn't possible... but it was there. (Remember how Kirito was yelping in pain because he was stabbed in the arm? Then Leg and Chest... Not the point, but the point is you CAN feel pain to a certain extent The reason this story is a bit stretched is in order to establish a bit of what happened and give a slightly deeper bond between Yuichi and Angel)

She continued "I had to sacrifice my green cursor to save you, so I may get kicked out of my guild because of what happened, but there was nothing that could have been done about it. I couldn't let you guys die, all of you are too valuable to just let go, and to think, what would have happened if I had not shown up when I did" I thought about it for a moment, she was right. We would be dead if she hadn't shown up, everyone was pretty much paralyzed. I wanted to ask her to join our guild, but it looked like she was doing well where she was. "That Murder Guild that you disbanded, that was only a small group of newbies, they would have been full blown murderers if they were all trained well. It was good that they disbanded before something worse happened"

This is when Asuna stood up and was getting ready to leave, before saying "I am sorry, but the new guild wants me to get back before it is late, I am already late as is and they probably aren't going to be to happy with me, hopefully I can successfully explain everything that happened." My gut reaction told me to say what I said next, "We will go to help you out, we owe you our lives after all." However, she shrugged off the gesture and bolted it for the trees, I wonder why she didn't want our help... it could be that she lost her trust in us, or that she didn't want to be in our guild, because she is already in one that is probably one of the strongest ones that is currenty available.

It was strange for her to just book it, she must really like that guild to want to stay in it that badly. After all, the place is a place that a girl could join without feeling pressured by the feeling of gazes from many boys, and the fact that she is beautiful wouldn't help the matters ether. I wonder if there is such a thing as an all girls guild. Also, I think that she may be just a tiny bit absent minded like me, but I guess I could just be imagining things. However, I guess we will see her again after all, because it seems that she may have actually left her blade on the ground beside where she was sitting.

_**Author's Note: If you enjoyed reading this, and you would like to see more, I would be deeply honored if you would Follow, Favorite, and or Review my content because I have been releasing it for the enjoyment of all of you guys, thank you to those who have already done so, and I would like to say all of you are appreciated, thank you, baiii.**_


	14. Angel's Facade? Hajime's Revealed

**_-=Chapter**_** 14: Back Stories, and The Guild's Reactions (Angel's Point Of View)**_

'Angel...' the name ringed in my head as I thought of my own name, for some reason, though I have never known why, I hate the way my name rings, it makes me sound perfect, I just wish I could let others see. Over the time I have spent so far in the game, I have realized something that has been hidden away from me for so long, something that I had been unconsciously doing since my father told me that I was destined to be the successor of his company. I took it as possibly the most important words I was ever told *If I say told... people just transferred the knowledge through various methods, just to make it a bit more explained*

When I was little, I grew up a complete failure at everything, no matter what it was, and... every single time I would mess something up my dad would be there to give me that disappointed look... like... the one that you get when you steal a cookie from the cookie jar, or when you don't obey your parents. He was always very strict with me and tried training me to be a perfect girl, but eventually he started to change, and his business ended up taking a huge financial leap forward and ends up having our whole family being surrounded by media, and we were all a craze, but because I was such a boring little girl who was clumsy and always making mistakes, I was constantly humiliated world wide.

I was able to live with it, because of my mother, she was always there, even when my father seemed to hate me, I just hope that I can survive this game, to tell her my thanks, because if I don't... I will have to at least tell everyone on my team before I run the risk of dying. My mother comforted me in any situation, I remember, when I had scrapped my knee, I was crying and ran into the house, my mother ran to me and asked what was wrong with her classic worried look on her face, and she just reminded me of everything that I would want to be, she was sweet, kind, most of the time quiet, she wrote down the words "Are you okay" in such a neat and petite hand writing, I just looked at her, and hugged her. She continued to console me, she is such a perfect mother, and she only shows it around me... It gave me a strange sensation that she would always be there for me.

One day... I just decided, I had enough of everyone pushing me around because I was imperfect, so, I completely dedicated everything I had to becoming a perfect girl for my daddy... no matter what... I had to be perfect, that way he wouldn't hate me anymore, that way he could look at me with proud eyes, that way, I would never... ever have to see that look on his face... ever again. The next two years at elementary school were a living hell, I was still being constantly harassed by all the children that was in my elementary school, and slowly, I started to build a tiny wall around myself, a metaphorical shell that slowly grew as I entered middle school, I buried myself in my studies, and quickly realized my photographic memory, then started skipping grades like mad, suddenly, everyone didn't see me as that clumsy little girl, but as a girl who was smart, kind, reliable. I loved every moment of it...

Though it made me feel horrible for fooling everyone, I did enjoy being loved by the media, and not hated, or humiliated. Eventually I was asked to appear on two TV shows because of my fathers business, and then they found out about my photographic memory, and that turned into a big deal, both shows ended in telling me I do, in fact have a perfect memory, despite the original purpose of the topic going completely out of the window, it was good to know that I was invited onto shows and people had interest in me for other reasons than just laughing at me whenever I did something humiliating. After these two TV appearances everything started to die down in my life, reporters had stopped showing up to our house, and all the embarrassing Guinness world records I had were broken *They were added without my free will, don't ask how*. Everything seemed to be going my way, until...

My father and mother got ill, I was forced to do all of the work of the business, and no matter what I was thinking before, I guess I ignored the memories of then, because my father became sick and my mother, too. Eventually, my father died of the sickness and I drew myself even farther in that shell, never once did my father ever tell me that he was proud of me, until it was almost to late... He told me in letter, the very letter that I still have in my desk... under my computer. Now, the only one that could get me to show my real self was my mother... She is such a kind woman. I need to tell everyone my past, but how? I am almost sure that even though we are close, I just always have this hidden fear that they will all reject me because of my horrible past... I wonder what Asuna is doing right now, we last saw her around four days ago...

I know I probably haven't told my life story very well, but I am trying my best, usually I don't even think like this, let alone actually talk about telling others my feelings... "You know that you have a tendency to think out loud, right?" Kirito said, I was suddenly zapped back to reality... "I never knew..." he said blushing, "That you were faking your personality... I always thought that it was genuine" What does he have to be embarrassed about?! I am the one that was thinking out loud, I noticed myself starting to blush a bright crimson. My eyes started to water as I looked down at my shoes, I never change before I decide to go to sleep, and started to say something, but noticed my self choking up... this has never happened before... "I never thought... It was fake, I just now realized how fake my life was..." I started crying, and without thinking hugged him... 'Eh?! Why am I hugging him' I feel a bit stupid for lying to myself all of this time.

I love Kirito... That is the only way that I am showing my true self around him, because I can only do it around people I love, I must make sure to never let this slip my mouth... I grabbed his cloak tighter, he was blushing even deeper than I was when I looked at his face from the corner of my eyes, he slowly put one arm around me. I think there was something I had forgotten to mention... Despite having a photographic memory occasionally I can be totally absent minded, weird I know. He pulled away and looked at me, he is so close! I am thankful he is willing to hug me, and is not mad about the fake personality...

_**_-= Two Days In The Past =-_**_

_I was looking around everywhere for Kirito, trying to find some sign of the now named Black Swordsmen, because of a duel that happened yesterday the name seems to be more known then before, I eventually gave up looking by the meadow outside the house, which was a place he seemed to like, and stepped into the forest. I was thinking about what would happen if we didn't find him around here when I saw a clearing, it wasn't just a clearing... but a beautiful meadow, with a giant tree that must have been the center piece of the forest standing tall in the middle of the clearing. The meadow was full of flowers, and they ranged from Roses to Lilies, I looked around, until I found what I liked the most of all of them, the prettiest flower of them all, the white Iris. I picked one and stuck it in my hair, it seems as though this is the only place with flowers we have discovered so far, because the meadow at the house only has grass._

_A sudden breeze kicked up and pedals swirled everywhere, the scent from the flowers was almost to much to handle "It is so gorgeous!" I said, and looked around, I picked up a bouquet of iris's and tied them with the bow that I usually kept in my hair. Then I looked at the tree, and there stood a very cute Kirito sleeping at the center, pedals from various pedals laid all over him, it seems that he found this place and fell asleep! How cute! I walked over towards him, he looks even cuter when you can get a close up of him... wait a moment? What is with these internal thoughts?! I looked around for a moment longer, and then looked at Kirito, I have never scene anything more innocent looking than him sleeping like that..._

_I suddenly felt myself getting absorbed in thought... and then one thought swirled though my head, I could kiss him if I wanted to... I wonder if he would wake up... only one way to find out. All of my rational thought flew out the window and before I could prevent myself my lips were against his, it was warm... but I guess... it just didn't seem real, it seemed like a dream... The best dream ever if it is! Angel... I heard a name calling out to me, Angel... ANGEL!_

I woke up to Yuichi yelling down the hall, he was waiting for a response, Man! I wish that wasn't a dream... But why did I have a dream like that? "I am fine!" I suddenly felt something was strange... There is Iris's everywhere?! How did this happen? This has been happening a lot lately! I have been having a dream and something from the dream seems to escape and find it self in reality... or in this case.. virtual reality, if only that kiss was real...

**__-= Back To The Present _**=-_

Will Kirito really be able to accept me for who I am? If he can I think that it will bring us closer...

Hajime suddenly called out for all of us to come to the center room "Everyone, go to the center room" what that meant was that we have a room that leads outside and to all the rooms inside of the house, it is the place where we meet for important meetings and things of that nature, we haven't had one since around the time we moved in, I wonder what happened that would be so important that he would call all of us out of here like this. As me and Kirito ran in, Yuichi was already seated and was calmly waiting for us. Both of us took a seat on a couch and waited for Hajime, who was quietly sitting down himself, but then rose. He seemed to radiate this feeling of uneasiness.

"The guild leader... I killed..." he said, barely loud enough for me to hear. "I killed the guild leader..." He said, I could barely believe the words he was saying, but it seemed as though it had made sense, why else would that murder guild had disbanded, I heard that if a guild leader was beat in a duel for power the leadership would have been passed down but I knew nothing about what could happen if the leader had died... but, HAJIME... Killed someone? Sure he was the weakest on the team but I could never see him killing someone, I could not see anyone kill someone, though, we are probably all bound to in order to keep each other alive, especially if something like yesterday happens again. I want to let Hajime know it is okay, but is it really okay?

I convinced myself for Hajime's sake, but right before I said anything, we all watched Hajime open up his main menu and into his guild selections, is he going to leave the guild?! I prepared myself and almost yelled "Do you think we are going to hate you for something like that?" My tone was harsh but I knew it would be enough for him to stop what he was doing, this is the first time any of them has heard me yell, so all three of them looked at me surprised. "Don't you know, you have been around way to long for us to hate you, we are all a team, and a team without all of it's players is not a team at all!" I thought it would reassure him, and Hajime looked at me for a moment longer, and closed his main menu window and was waiting for someone else to speak.

The next person to speak was Kirito, "I knew that he was a red player for a while, but I thought that it would be best to let Hajime tell us that he had killed someone when he was ready, rather than me tell you. I understood that Hajime didn't want you guys to get hurt, so he thought that it was the only way to make the situation better, I probably would have had to face them alone if Hajime hadn't joined me. That I think, is when all of the newbies felt the same reaction to the death of their leader, except the two that was following Angel and Yuichi. They all found out what it was like to have someone die, even though I don't think these people liked the girl so much." he said quietly, I don't think he was sure we were listening.

Next, Yuichi said something, which doesn't happen very often, but when he does it always is something that makes Hajime comforted, so I felt as though the two would be able to resolve it after Yuichi was done talking, but it was a bit different this time. "You really think that after all we have been through together, that we would all think less of you for doing something that all of us would have done in that situation. Hajime, is that what our friend ship is as strong as to you? If so, our friend ship will be a bit strained, relax Hajime, no one hear hates you for what you did, if anything, I admire you." Everyone's eyes stared at Yuichi surprised at this strange usage of words, he usually is so calm and collected, and barely says a word to anyone... is this really Yuichi talking? I have never heard Yuichi carry such a tone before, but could it be because Hajime and Yuichi some how have a deeper bond with each other than they do with me and Kirito. What could have happened the first few days that they were together that could cause something like this? Do they know each other in real life?

One thing that we have promised each other is to never mention anything about our lives in the real world, more specifically, not to intrude on other peoples personal lives outside of the game, because it would be very rude, not only that but digging up stuff about our real world lives could open up a lot of potential drama, potentially tearing us apart, but the only one who doesn't have that pleasure is me, due to my popularity in the public when I was a child and my father being a big business owner everyone here I think knows about my past, it doesn't scare me though, the fact is that they were willing to see beyond my past and look at the me that I am today. I hope that we can all get even closer as a bunch of friends, and hopefully over time I can get rid of this looming poker face. With the help of all my friends, I am all but hesitant to try, hopefully they will approve of my slow changes I will try to make.

I went to the extent of looking behind Yuichi to make sure that no one was behind him talking, before looking straight at him. He suddenly got all shy... Typical Yuichi, he must have used all the courage he had summed up just now. This time when he spoke it was much quieter. "I admire you because I could probably not have been able to do such a thing to protect all of us in that situation..." I think that Yuichi is having a bit of trouble talking, which is understandable when you concider what he is trying to say, after that an comforting silence fell upon the room, and before it could become awkward I yelled "Group Hug!" and everyone came together, I think that we have all just become closer friends, and it was thanks to strange things Yuichi had told us today...

_**Author's Note: Find out what happens, Next Chapter! Though I decided a cliffhanger was unnessicary for this chapter because a lot happened in such a short time, I hope you enjoyed because I have had a lot of work to rewrite these chapters for you guys because it all seemed as though I did not fix everything the whole point I wrote this chapter was to explain what happened to Yuichi and Angel while they were out of the picture in the last chapter, and it give a better bond for the two people.**_


	15. Kirito's Thinking

_**_-= Chapter 15: Kirito's Thinking =-_ (Based Two Days Before The Last Chapter, at night) (Kirito is thinking about everything that is going on in the game including Angel and Why would Kayaba want to kill people to get control)**_

I have noticed that I seem to be getting more and more flustered around Angel, and come to think of it, I think that there is only one possible reason for something like that to happen. I think I may have fallen for Angel, I think I have for quit a while actually, I have always been flustered around Angel but when she told me she cared about me, which is something I will always remember, I felt as though my heart would stop. I think that she doesn't think the same way about me but it is all right as long as Hajime or Yuichi doesn't try anything with her, which I think they are smart enough not to.

Despite that, I think that if she was to see everything that would be going through my head she would probably hate me, that is why I want to never tell her how I really feel about her, but maybe I could show her in some way, it would definitely be easier than saying it out loud, you know, if Angel hadn't have gotten the ability to listen and understand language I could just MESSAGE her it, but of course, Akihiko had to update the system to make all deaf players able to understand language, now that I think about it though, hearing her sweet voice is a real pleasure. If there was one thing I wish she would do, it would probably be to sing... Not to be weird, but I do wonder what a quiet voice like that would sound like when singing, even though I have never been a music fan.

I felt myself starting to drift in an out of consciousness until I fell asleep, which was in the house, obviously, there wouldn't be anywhere else that I could possibly be and be safe to rest at. My friends are outside close by so I should be fine, I am really tired from yesterday and yeah. I quickly drifted to sleep and felt myself almost feel as though I was warped back to reality. Everything seems so real in dreams, and then you wake up to find yourself back where you were when you fell asleep. In this dream I was in a really dark alley way. I don't know why but the fact of where I am seemed to make me very uneasy, even though I know that this was a dream, it just crept me out a bit.

The only thing that seemed clear to me was how cold everything seemed, the whole atmosphere seemed as though it was trying to keep me away, as though there was something it didn't want me around for, I felt a picture of Angel zip past me as I thought about her, various memories appeared, and it was as though I was back in time, I was remembering the time we went to the beach, I remembered the first boss battle. What Angel didn't know back then was how worried I was that something really bad would happen to her, or that she wouldn't wake up. It terrified me to the point that I wanted to stay by her side till the end, that is probably when I fell in love with her, or when I first thought about it.

Then I thought about the first day we had met, and how she fell asleep in the meadow and how peaceful she looked while she was sleeping. Her hair slightly had covered her face, the white hair was sparkling from the sun beating down on it and made her look almost perfect, except the fact that she had an adorable tiny snore that she probably has never heard before because of her being deaf, but it is so quiet you have to listen carefully to hear it, I learned of it after we all bought a house together, Yuichi, Hajime, Angel and me. I have never had friends like these guys before, but I wonder will they still be my friends if we all make it out of the game alive?

Next, I thought about a memory that only I shared, because Angel was sleeping, again. I was watching her as she fell asleep while leaning on a tree, I had to make a promise to watch her before she was comfortable to trying to take a nap outside, but I still convinced her to do it. As I watched her I realized how gentle she really looks, she looks like the person that you would want to hug, and reminds me of a teddy bear. It was probably this face that had brought the name Angel onto her, and not because of how she looks, she could have black hairs and black eyes and would still look as much like an Angel as she does now.

I was suddenly zapped awake when I started to have a nightmare, because the nightmare was about Angel dying... This brought a lot of new thoughts to my head, how many times Angel has been close to death. It has happened 3 or 4 times, and because I didn't go and find her, without Hajime and Yuichi, she wouldn't even be here to be on our team today. Then there was the first boss fight, when she took Diabel's place in the battle to make sure that he didn't die. I think that it was probably the bravest thing I have seen anyone do in this game up to this very day. Then there was the time where she was almost murdered by the Death Markers. When Hajime had to kill the leader, she still doesn't know what happened to that girl. I guess she could, but unless Hajime told or Angel and Yuichi looked at his cursor, they would never get to know, I found out for sure when he told me to look at his cursor, though he never asked for an answer.

I feel as though everyone on my team is so valuable to me that if they were to all die I would probably find a way to die myself, I wonder how such a deep bond could form via a video game that has gone mad, I thought that there was a good side to this video game, but it was only during the beta test, everything felt darker as soon as Kayaba had initiated the launch of the game, I am just left wondering why. I still don't believe that Kayaba would just monitor everything though, he has to be some sort of player, or else he would be stuck watching what happens to everyone, so who is he playing as?

The most probable answer is that he is or will become some sort of guild leader, because someone like Kayaba who is obviously looking for control could find a lot of it in a large guild, he could not only have control but power as well, who knows, he could be in charge of a murder guild and we would never know, I read about the guy but I never found out about his personality or anything on the sorts, all I got was an idea of him when he had launched the game. When he was talking about the game ,he almost sounded proud of himself for what he had done. There was no point to this game, why would he ever want to be proud of it? Already so many people have died from this game, it is absolutely horrible.

No matter what, I have to beat this game, some how. Not only for my friends but for everyone that has died and will die by the fault of this horrible game, the sad thing is that it is actually a fair game, it has it's rules and never goes outside of them. If your HP reaches zero, your dead, if you are in a safe zone, you can't be attacked and murdered without a duel. It all makes sense, I just don't understand why he had to lock everyone up in this, he still could have had control in this world if he had just left it be and let people leave and come back at their own free will, but now that Kayaba has started this game, once it is over he won't have his control anymore, thus, making his point make no sense.

In the end he is just a murderer, so, hopefully he won't get away with him, I know that I will never forgive him if any of my friends died, and so many family's heart broken, they would probably pay to see him in an electric chair.

_**_-= Back to the Present of the previous Chapter=-_**_

I hugged slowly hugged Angel back, I was blushing furiously and felt like my whole body was red, I looked back at her for a moment, and saw that she was blushing to and it gave me a small amount of relief. A short while after we broke apart from the hug I went to my room to try and cool off a bit, I opened a window in the room, and a breeze swept in happily, I noticed that flower pedals were blowing into my room, but it was way to small of a detail to care about, so I simply shrugged it off, the flower pedals will disappear eventually. Although, I really did enjoy the scent that came with the flower pedals, it has to be one of the most realistic scents in this game.

The smell was of various flowers all coming together and forming a fantastic aroma, it made me want to go and pick flowers, which was strange, but just for the scent of them. I never noticed how flowers smelled and other small details like that, but now that I am here, every little detail seems so much more noticeable that if you can't notice it how can you really be alive. This kind of atmosphere allowed me to relax, even after something like what just happened with Angel had just happened. I hope that when I get back to real life the flowers will still smell like the flowers smell like here. I wonder if Angel and Hajime and Yuichi were all able to smell the flowers too. Part of me wanted to tell them about the strange occurrence and the other part of me wanted to stay here and keep smelling them. Eventually I decided to go and lay down for a while, and try thinking a little bit more. Though I knew it would be hard because I am a little exhausted.

What I originally started thinking about was the guild, for some reason, Angel refuses to fight other players, or to battle during boss fights, instead, she wants to make sure that no one else dies, I feel like that isn't the only reason for her refusing to battle during such situations. There has to be something else that is making Angel think this way. Another thing, I wonder how Hajime is dealing with what he had done to that group's guild leaders death, because he was the one who had killed her, even I feel a bit guilty for her death and I have nothing to do with it! To think though, that girl, is now completely done, gone out of this world, no more... to think that it happened to someone who only a few days ago was alive and well, the only thing that settles my nerves is how many lives we saved by killing her, and ending her life now... Hopefully it will help prevent future deaths, though there will definitely be a new Murder Guild that will form itself soon.

I suddenly felt a bit drowsy, I guess what happened today must have made me a bit tired, from all of this thinking about Angel and Kayaba, geez, I really haven't been acting like myself lately... I must seem so stupid to anyone who can't tell what I am thinking seeing me looking down all the time so that Angel can't see that I am blushing whenever I am around her. Hajime and Yuichi have already said that we would make a good couple, but Angel would always punch them in the shoulders whenever they did and call them stupid, well, stupid fools. I felt myself fall asleep and began thinking about my memories with Angel again, before starting to think of a new memory that could happen in the future.

It was me and Angel in the real world going on a date, Angel was gripping on my arm as though her life depended on it and gave me one of her soft smiles as we looked around at the park and relaxed and everything that I could think about started to melt away, as I just watched my dream go by, Angel was smiling and occasionally looking at me. Whatever anyone does, don't wake me up because I want to see where this dream goes. As I watched Angel, she suddenly told me that she had to go back to her home, said my name, then kissed me! I suddenly jolted awake. I felt something on my lap, it was three Iris's wrapped in a bow, the bow Angel keeps in her hair, if it was a dream why do I feel like we just kissed? And where did these things come from?

_**Leaving a dazed and confused Kirito we must leave him to enter into Chapter 15, what could possibly be in store for our hero as he and Angel and his friends must go through more trials of their friendship and... new found love? We will have to see! Wait for chapter 15 to see what will happen next! Thanks for reading, Follow, Favorite, and Review if you enjoyed! Yeah, and ohhhh so poor Kirito being so confused about his feelings, let us cheer him on from the shadows of the deep and dark realms *Smiles Evilly* Let us see how their relationship develops in the future shall we?**_


	16. A Date?

**_Author's note: Sorry, but this is going to be a rather long story, so please hang with me, and after, you guys can read a really mushy chapter where Kirito and Angel finally get some bonding time... ALONE... Now, to the important topic I must talk to you guys about, my EXTREMELY PROLONGED ABSENSE. I am so sorry for all this time I have been spending not uploading anything at all for giving a reason, the reasons are as following: My grandmother died, My grandfather suffered a fall, School Started, School clubs, Marching band, and Student Council have all been dominating my time and energy so I have had little to no time to edit and write this story for you guys, but don't worry... THIS STORY IS NOT DEAD :,I I am sorry to all those who thought that this story is over.. BUT THE TRUE PLOT HAS ONLY JUST BEGUN... :D So stick around to find out all of the juicy secrets about Hajime and Yuichi's twisted pasts, and some other huge plots that you will get to know of soon enough, that give some explanations to the minuet details some pointed out as strange... you will see soon enough._**

**__-=Chapter 16: A date?=-__**

The days have passed by relatively quickly in Sword Art Online, every day seems to start to slur together, because before I even knew it, it is the sixth month since the death game has started, the thought haunts me, and it keeps me thinking that the only thing that keeps me alive is my friends. Who are in the guild that was formed by Hajime and Yuichi from the beginning. I am actually really happy I met them all, and together, I hope that we will be able to beat this game. Today, we are all supposed to go through out the new town that we discovered on the outskirts of floor 24, but for some reason Hajime and Yuichi decided that it would be best for just Kirito and I to talk everything over.

I think that today is going to be an extra special occasion because me and Kirito in all this time haven't spent a lot of time alone together, it has almost always been us four, not just us two. However, I have to admit that it is intimidating knowing that I am going to be alone with someone that I think I like... like. I hope everything goes well though, and in the end, I am glad that there hasn't been any other girl that he has gotten this close with, I just still have no idea about his real world attachments... Which is something that always bothers me. Though I have always kept that feeling hidden from the surface, I hope that no one will realize it.

Deciding on what to wear today, though I don't have much clothing because it all needs to be tailored by the few equipment makers who are willing to try and make fabrics, I did choose something that I really liked. This outfit is a light grey dress, the dress itself is quite plain, with only a ribbon across the waist that forms a huge bow in the back, and near the bottom of the dress there is a rose embroidery that has been added, personally I have always loved this dress because of the roses, which are black, I think they go with the dress quite well. As for anything else, I have a small sword that I usually keep in my inventory attached to the ribbon. It's sheath is covered in white laces that travel delicately down the blade, and though they seem fragile, are strong enough not to be cut by the blade and vanish, their durability is very high. As my eyes travel down the blade, the quality of it becomes clear, it's clean cut edge with two colors that shine brightly across it, is black and silver, though I have little clue about the crafting of swords, I could tell this one was unique just by looking at it, and bought it first chance I had, having to spend everything I had on me for it, I rarely use it for fear of it breaking.

Taking the sword I gently put it on the bed and throw off the equipment I am wearing, and put it away, then throw on the dress and reattach the sword to my ribbon on the dress. I look at myself, and then shake my head disapprovingly, I get the strong feeling that something is missing for the occasion, then it suddenly popped into my head, that the light grey cloak I had would go well with this outfit, and I quickly got it out and slid it on then went outside my room of the guild house and looked for Kirito. "Kirito?" My voice yelled through the town, after five additional minutes of searching I find Kirito, asleep, under a tree. I gently shake him awake "Kirito, have you forgotten our meeting. Yuichi and Hajime backed out, so it is just you and me talking today." I felt a small lump form in my throat as I spoke.

_-=_Kirito's Point of View=-__

I felt a blush slowly creep on my face but quickly pushed it away, trying my best to prevent it from showing at the thought that she might find me sick if I were to blush, even though she knows people don't get sick in this game, she still sometimes mistakes this game for the real world, and it is embarrassing when she touches my head. "What was their excuse?" I said, quietly, I was glad I didn't have to hide my face this time because my blush had finally settled down and was at a minimal. "No reason" she said calmly, I felt another wave of thoughts slowly brush through me. "They probably thought there was something that we two needed to discuss on our own, exactly what I am not sure, I hope they give us a good excuse later."

Suddenly I feel an arm around me and this time the blush was impossible to hide, "Kirito, can we discuss this now?" I gulped once, and shyly started walking, how can she be so calm when she has her arm around mine, 'Does she not share the same feelings? Is she just being friendly?' these thoughts kept filling my mind and was all I could focus on, well that and her arm, until she finally said something to break my uneasy thoughts. "It is kind of nice though isn't it?" she said quietly. I cleared my throat before speaking. "What is?" was all I could muster out, "Well, isn't it nice for us to have the ability to talk alone? It seems like it has always been us four, this is the first time we have really been alone" this time the blush felt as though it was creeping everywhere, even outside my face and down my arms, I gulped again, almost to nervous to say anything.

I just now noticed that she had dressed up especially for the occasion and it made me actually a bit happy, but though it is something I appreciate, something had also deeply effected me, something was missing... HER BOW! The bow she always kept in her hair isn't there, why is that, when she got so mad at me for messing it up that day that seemed like forever ago, I have to ask "Where is your bow?" I blurted out... I felt my face turn red and turned away from her quickly, her answer made me blush even more, "Well, I don't really need it anymore because I have you..." She paused for a brief moment, before continuing "The rest of the guild to!" She seemed almost happy when she was finished with her statement and grasped my arm a little tighter.

I just now realized what we are really here for, and I think it is important to talk to her about it. "Angel?" I said, calmly, "Yes, Kirito?" she said, keeping a straight face, "It seems like your attitude towards everyone has changed a lot since we all first met you huh? I was just wondering if you really had changed, or if you just had gotten to know us better. I also get that you couldn't speak with us in the beginning, thus it would make it harder for you to show your true colors, but that doesn't change the question." I said, this time a knot not only formed in my throat, but I felt like there was a hint of wanting to know the answer in the way I spoke to her, which was not what I wanted to have in my voice, but I think it was uncontrollable.

_** _-=Angel's Point of View=-_ **_

I looked at Kirito nervously, 'Did he really figure out that so easily? I understand that I have changed, and it was because I have been trying to remove this fake poker face, but, how did Kirito realize that so easily, when everyone else hadn't... Then again, I have changed the most around him. I let go of his arm debating how to answer and eventually, I decided that it would be best to tell him the truth, right before I did I felt a rock under me and tripped, and he quickly helped me up, then eagerly looked at me and I knew I couldn't hold back the truth anymore. I still don't understand how exactly he was so analytical, but I guess it is obvious if you look at me before and you look at me now,"Kirito, when I first met all of you, it wasn't just the fact that I had to use the message board to talk to everyone, it was everything about my life." the knot started coming back in my throat, but I knew I had to work through it, "Before I met all of you, before I bought this game, years before then, I was known world wide as a clumsy child, I was picked on a lot, and eventually I lost sight of who I wanted to be, so I decided that I would stop all of this pain. I changed myself and became a boring child, who's manners, memory, and everything was perfect, except the one thing that I never wanted to cure, I have never hidden my deafness in the real world, only know have I figured that out. The one thing I have stayed true to, with you guys, I slowly warmed up to you and realized that I have changed the way I am and I became the person that I used to be."

He looked at me shocked and then I reclaimed his arm and we talked more about previously talked about subjects, such as the strange dreams that I have, which Kirito figured out quite well if I do say so myself, but it was because he walked in on me trying to remove a dove that came alive from my dream.. that made me explain it to him, but I am okay with that. Anyways, that subject and the subject about how exactly I suddenly learned to talk had came up many times during the conversation, but eventually our topic got to the murder guild, and the deeper topic that I find sensitive, though it is an old wound and most likely will yield nothing, considering nothing has happened that has been directly linked, the death note sent by Heathcliff is still bothering me to this day, along with Kirito a little, but I don't think he understands how bad it really fells to be in such a situation.

At the end of us looking through this town we discovered, which we actually discovered with a bunch of other people in front lines, we started heading back, on the way back both of us were silent, and when we got close to the house I noticed I still had his arm and I let go, then when we finally got there I went sleepily to my room. Despite what you might think I think that sleep is just as important in the game as in the real world, because I am exhausted from today, I quickly slipped under the white cover of my blanket as the warmth of the blanket reached me, I quickly felt myself drift to sleep as I thought about everything that had gone on today.

_**_-=Author's note: I hope you enjoyed this mushy chapter, I am really sorry I have been gone and hope that you guys will all understand why I was gone, Next chapter will reveal a bit more into the plot... hope you guys enjoyed and please show your support by Reviewing, Favoriting, and Following my fanfiction, I am sorry that it has been so long since I have uploaded anything, please forgive me? :,(**_


	17. Prepping for Tepholis Daten-shi!

_**Author's Note: This chapter is something that I decided would be interesting, such as a new weapon being added into Sword Art Online, and this chapter is very important because there is a bit of character development in it, so please, read the entire thing :D, because some of this will most likely be important in later chapters!**_

_**_-=Chapter 17: Prepping for Daten-shi Tepholis=-_ (Angel's Point of View) -Day: Thursday-**_

Everyone around the guild table is eating silently, though it is supposed to be a guild meeting about the new floor boss that was just recently discovered. The story about the discovery was a bit suspicious though, a group of scouts from another guild, called Kotbo for short, or well, is what our guild calls them, went looking for the boss. Every single one of the scouts entered except for the leader, who was letting everyone in, right before he was to step in to join his fellow comrades, the door was slammed shut with him only getting a glimpse of the boss. When he returned, he was to terrified by what he saw to speak, and so he was sent to the guilds finest courters to recuperate from the trying experience.

Only recently has he recuperated enough to provide an explanation as to what the beast was that terrified him so. The beast, named Daten-shi Tepholis, the boss stood at a shocking twenty feet tall, if not, taller. The face of the creature, from what he described, looked as though it was created from hardened clay, it had wrinkles that spread across it making it look ugly and old, the hair that grew from the beast was shabby, and was more like fur. As your gaze would travel down the base of the monster, you could see that it had the lower body of a horse. It's mundane amount of hair made it look more like a bald cat though, and the sword it carries looks the quality of it's 'fur'. However, something that really scared him was what was placed on the back of this boss, he saw only a glimpse of it, but he glimpsed black wings that had a wing span of at least fifty feet. According to his account, none of the soldiers came out when the door was reopened and that was why he was so terrified of everything that happened.

I feel like it is about time for the discussion to actually start, secretly I am hoping that talking about our worries will help put some of them aside, but you can never really be sure until you actually talk about them. "Guys, I believe it is time to discuss the matter at hand" I said, semi scared, and a bit shy to seeing as the nature of what we are here to discuss today is so serious, I just hope they won't mind me suddenly budding in. I realized I was thinking strangely again and shook my head, then turned to Kirito who looked like he was about to speak, "Discussing what happened to that player," he put his hand on his chin and then continued, "I think that we should all be careful when we decide to take on this boss with everyone else next week.

Everyone at the table felt as though this information was obvious, but I knew that at least I felt that it was important to say it regardless of the probability of the situation, as he started to talk again, for a split second I noticed that he had a worried expression on his face, but he quickly 'shook' it away. "This boss may be the hardest one we have ever faced, however, we do have the advantage of knowing what kind of weapon it has and also we know that it has an ability that will be hard to beat, the ability to fly. Though we can't be sure if that is true or not, I think it would be wise to have someone cover having a long range weapon in order to attack at it if it decides to fly. The only one who knows how to operate any kind of weapon that could cover a long range shot is Angel." he looked at me and thought about it for a moment.

What he said is true, however, the only reason I got a long range weapon in the first place is because of one of those strange 'dreams', I was dreaming of being an elf, from that old book called Eragon , and the dream abruptly ended when I was shotting an arrow at a monster from long range, when I woke up. The strange thing was that a bow and quiver full of arrows was laying on my bed side when I woke up. I tried keeping it from the guild members for a while until they eventually found the strange entities and asked about it, and well, that was another way they found out about what happened when it came to those strange dreams that were always happening. That is what he was talking about though when he mentioned a long range weapon, not only is it a long range weapon, but it has a strange ability called Wielder's Strife, it increases the power in the bow the longer you use it, however, if you are not calm when you shoot an arrow you will miss completely.

"Angel, I think you should get out the bow so that everyone can see it again. We want to make sure that it won't break during the guild battle, you got that thing a while ago, and you have used it a lot so it could be close to breaking at any time." I quickly ran and got the bow, it was silver in color, the entire thing was smooth and felt like polished ivory, something I only touched once at a very young age when my mother had an ivory vase, a vase that I ended up breaking. At the top edge of the bow was two wings and the bottom one edge was sharpened to a point, Maybe to double up as a curved spear but I truly have no clue. I was surprised that he knew I practiced on the bow a lot, because it was something that I only liked to do when it was late at night.

Hajime looked shocked to see a bow in Sword Art Online, to be honest when I first 'received' it I was a bit shocked too, however, this was the thing that made me decide I would be a healer and a fighter. That was one reason and another reason was that it was that I realized I was pretty useless when I never fought, and I noticed that despite my efforts that some players are still dying during battle, the fact that I call myself a healer makes me feel guilt whenever I see someone whom I failed to do my job for, and then also knowing that most likely they are gone in the real world... I feel myself shutter and look up to see everyone staring at me, then I blush when I glance at Kirito and our eyes meet. I quickly sat down because despite being with these people for so long I still have trouble whenever all attention is focused on me.

**_FlashForward: -Night of Day: Friday- (Angel's Point of View)_**

The rest of that meeting really we discussed unimportant things and all our weapons and armor was restored. Watching my bow get restored reminded me of the first time I tried cooking, because he is not used to repairing bows, and is used to other kinds of weapons, it was funny watching him toy with it till he finished repairing it. Finally, at the end, Kirito revealed to us that the planned time to attack the boss for all the guilds is 15:00 next week, Wednesday, today is Friday. It seems as though the date for this battle is creeping nearer and nearer.

Kirito made his way up to the roof, where I currently am, I felt myself blush upon seeing him, which for some reason this time agitated me because I was trying to think about something else and him coming up here made my mind go blank. He sat beside me and watched me for a while, before quietly saying "Make sure that you don't go near the boss, we need you for your bow, if you were to get hurt no one here could take your place." I glanced at him, he was doing what he always does when he is alone with me, he hides his eyes. I still am not sure if I hate it or find it adorable when he does that, but it doesn't matter.

"Kirito, why do you think no one could replace me? I mean, it wouldn't be that hard to get someone else to pick up that bow and wield it" I blurted out loud, then quieted down before saying anything else, partially out of embarrassment and partially out of wanting to hear how he would respond. He looked at me, and shook his head "The bow isn't the entire reason why, there isn't anyone else like you here" I got the feeling he was out of character recently, so I asked "Are you okay" when he responded, even though he said yes, I went over and felt his head. Even though part of me knew that you couldn't get fevers in a game, I still got the urge to make sure he was alright, because usually he doesn't say things like that to anyone, after I checked and knew he was not sick. The roof fell silent. I laid down for a moment and fell asleep with him right there.

_**FlashForward: -Night of Day: Monday- (Yuichi's Point of View)**_

It seems that around the house everyone has been getting more and more tense, though I can't say I am not guilty of that as well. I think it is mostly because we all know that Wednesday there is going to be that boss fight with the boss that has caused a lot more commotion then usually they do, most likely because the person who was scared ,was recently discovered to be one of the strongest fighters in the game, and even he was terrified of the beast. Not that I really mind, I don't care how terrifying that thing is as long as it doesn't hurt any of my friends. Because I seem to be the 'quietest one' of the group, and few know of my actual stats... which are that I am actually currently level with Angel, though she doesn't know that.

Also, I have noticed that the relationship against Angel and Kirito has been getting slightly closer. Though they might not realize it themselves, they are starting to spend more time together, and seem to slowly start understanding one another more, of course, I don't know for sure, but it seems like it. I also noticed that right after dinner the past few weeks Angel has been going up onto the roof to think, and Kirito has recently started going up there too around an hour after Angel comes up to there. I am kind of betting that they didn't think anyone else would actually realize this, and the only reason I did is because Angel is the one that cooks, and she leaves right after everyone is done eating, then doesn't come back till the morning. How I noticed Kirito is that I looked for him a few nights ago and saw him up on the roof he kept glancing at Angel, who seemed to be asleep at the time. Anyways, I am not going to go into any further detail on that.

There has been another thing that has recently been going on that I am almost sure no one other than I knows about, that is gossip surrounding our guild. You see, there is players who devote their time writing things for other players, who can buy them for cheap prices and these things tend to give information about recent events that have been happening, for some reason, a player has completely devoted themselves to trying to figure out our guild, and they seem to be moreover focusing on Angel and Kirito. I still have not figured out this persons identity, because they are an anonymous poster who really uses their pet to hand out free copies of what they think. This person is a tamer, someone I hope to become, and they tamed a small dragon that flies around trying to give them away, however, it was trained to avoid four people, the four of us. Though eventually I got one by asking another player, and that is how I found out about them. As long as people don't start avoiding us I don't really care about this gossiper though.

_**Flashforward: -Night of Day: Tuesday- (Angel's Point of View)**_

I felt myself start to cry as I thought about the possibilities of what might happen tomorrow, and I couldn't keep myself from doing it. I heard someone climb onto the roof, but at this point I couldn't really stop myself, so I kept crying. When I looked up and saw it was Kirito though I felt ashamed that he had seen me in such a state. For a moment he looked at me, and I quickly looked down, then suddenly felt two arms go around me. His warmth at first shocked me, but after a moment I felt a huge wave of relief having him there, and noticed that I had slowly stopped crying. When I stopped, I realized that this entire time he had been gently petting my head, and that he had starting crying as well.

When I quietly asked why, he told me he was afraid... it was the first time I had ever heard or felt weakness within Kirito and it surprised me, more than it would if anyone else had done it. Yet, despite him crying, I felt a small amount of comfort, because I felt as though I was one of the first people to see him in such a venerable state, this emotion made me feel a bit of guilt, but it is not like it wasn't there. When I went to let him go, he pulled his arms tighter around me, and then, after a few more minutes he gradually stopped crying to, then let go. I looked up at him, mixed emotions of both Sympathy and understanding, and when he looked at me, he stared for a moment, before looking away, and I did the same. I suddenly got the feeling that what had just happened should probably stay a secret, and so I promised myself to tell no one.

I suddenly felt a wave of exhaustion go through me from the wave of emotions I had just endured, and felt myself put my head against his shoulder and quickly fall asleep. This night, I had no dream, but rather, I pondered about the feeling of having his arms around me, and this thought I just couldn't get out of my head. The colors of a light pink and tan kept swaying around, it was one of the strangest dreams I have ever had.

When I woke up I looked to see that Kirito had also fallen asleep, the fact we were still against each other surprised me, but when I looked around, and saw that Yuichi was watching us, I suddenly felt extremely embarrassed and woke up Kirito, who quietly looked at me, then blushed and moved away, probably because my face was three inches away from his at best. Yuichi quickly called "Come on love birds, I made breakfast". Me and Kirito shuddered at the thought of eating someone else's cooking other than my own, because the last time we had someone else's cooking it was Hajime's and everyone almost threw up, despite this being a game, I swear, it is still possible.

So, we both jumped down, and hit the ground, rather hard, and joined the others for the second meal we have all eaten together that wasn't of my own cooking, and thought it may seem impossible, surprisingly, it was worse than Hajime's.

_**Author's Note: Thank you all for reading this chapter, sorry again, it took me a while to write this because I didn't know exactly how to approach this chapter at first, hopefully it turned out pretty good and you guys enjoyed it, next chapter the real boss fight begins! Oh, and did you guys think that anything seemed a bit rushed here? I was wondering because I am writing a bit differently from usual, and the mushy scene the night before the boss fight may have been a bit to much, but I don't know, so guys please tell me. Review, Follow, and Favorite if you guys either enjoyed this or have good ideas on how to improve it! Thank you, have a nice day :D**_


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